Last night, Shane crossed over into Boy Scouts and received his Arrow of Light award. Arrow of Light is the highest award a boy can earn while a Cub Scout.
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| Before the Ceremony |
Shane was also a Webelos Super Achiever because he earned all 20 of the activity badges. But you can't see them...they are little pins on his shoulder. All those other giant patches all over his red vest are for participating in other activities like the Pinewood Derby and selling popcorn. I ran out of places to put these patches and had to dangle them from safety pins in between other patches. The most meaningful patches for me were his patch from his
first summer camp, the
baseball game, and the medals he earned by placing in
Pinewood Derbies (1st and 3rd) and Raingutter Regattas (1st, 2nd, and 3rd).
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| Mark's assistant leader bringing the boys in. |
Mark's favorite memories are also placing in the races,
catching fish, and of course, the
polar bear swims. Shane's favorite memories are the same as Mark's, plus tubing at
Camp Sheppard, ("Oh yeah, that was great!" says Mark). Another classic story would be Mark's first
camping trip as a leader when he came home with ticks.
We were fortunate that the new covered picnic shelter at the Civic Center was completed in time for Crossover! The rain poured down all day and didn't stop!
Mark did a wonderful job leading the ceremony...too bad I missed it. Heidi didn't like the cold, the rain, the crowd, or the drums. Another leader offered to hold her so I could present Shane with his award. She did not like that and kept checking to make sure I was holding her for the rest of the evening. I shouldn't have even bothered going, but I love Shane and I'm so proud of him.
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| Arrow of Light: The stripes on the arrow represent Shane's awards and past participation |
I'm proud of Mark too. He had the most difficult den I have ever heard of. The thing about being a den leader that no one really understands, is being a den leader is like another full time job. Once a week for five years, Mark (or I back in the Tiger/Wolf years) had to come up with a meeting plan that would keep these boys active and interested in scouts for an hour and a half AND get them through their rank requirements. The work is not without its rewards. As Mark painted each boy's face, he felt like he knew each boy personally, which he did. He was just as proud as each boy as he was of Shane.
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| It rained, it poured. |
After the boys received their Arrow of Light, they crossed the rope bridge constructed by the boy scouts.
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| Waiting his turn |
After the crossing, the Boy Scouts surrounded their new member and dress him with his new scarf, slide, and epaulets.
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| This mom is happy that her First Class Scout was involved with his brother's crossing. |
As this point, the rain was absolutely dumping on us, but it didn't "dampen" anyone's spirits (thanks for the pun, Mark). Mark was fondly remembering all the rainy day camping trips and thought it was appropriate to be huddling under a pop up shelter. I was remembering how it poured down when we entered scouts and how it was pouring as we left... and how it just seemed to pour the whole time we were involved with this pack.
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| Mark's den (raindrops keep fallin' on my lens...) |
The pack that we knew is now the troop we still know, so crossing over isn't going to be a new start, just a new meeting day where the boys will have to learn to manage themselves. Both Shane and Ian have learned so many life lessons from scouting, as I've said before. After five solid years of scouting with the same group of people, one would think that our family would have become close with at least one other family, but I'm starting to think that isn't going to happen. One of the most important lessons we are learning together is friends come and go, but family is family forever.
