2nd St. Albert Scouts NEWS

Buffalo Plains and Western Trails Cuboree 2008

Pack circle

Attending Our First Cuboree

July 28, 2008 - Scouter Gord Welling (Rikki)

Buffalo Plains Area has held a "Cuboree" for the last 10+ years. This is the first year in the last decade that we offered the opportunity for our cubs to attend the annual Cuboree. We had six cubs and three leaders participate in a weekend of fun and adventure at the Lake Chickakoo Scout Camp during the last weekend in May.

What is a Cuboree?

A "Cuboree" is a weekend camp where we gather cubs from as many packs as possible for a weekend of fun and adventure. Cubs get a chance to practise their camping skills and meet other cubs from other cub packs from the local region.

Pack circle

This year Buffalo Plains and Western Trails Areas held a Cuboree during the May 30th - June 1st weekend. More than 175 cubs and 95 leaders gathered at the Lake Chickakoo Scout Camp where we had the chance to participate in:

working together to set up our campsite,
a round-robin schedule of nine different activities like canoeing and archery.
traditional scout camp activities like a flag raising opening; an evening campfire with skits, songs and cheers; a scout's own; and a camp closure.

If you want to learn more about how all the cubs from the Buffalo Plains and Western Trails Areas enjoyed the weekend, we invite you to read "Buffalo Plains & Western Trails Cuboree 2008" on the Area Website.

Planning

Our thanks have to go to the parents who participated in the planning meeting and helped to finalize the arrangements including the menu plan. Special thanks go to Scouter Paul Leveridge who transported out all of our Group camp equipment including tents and water. Special thanks also go to Yvette Sutherland who purchased and transported our food out to the camp site.

Camp Album

After all the planning and preparation, how did we do? Well, 6 cubs and 3 leaders showed up for this camp and we had a great time. Take a look at our camp album:

Cubs were assigned camp chores including cooking ...

Cubs were placed in tent groups and were responsible for erecting their own tent and storing their personal gear inside.

Cuborees are designed to foster a positive attitude about nature and how to camp using 'no-trace camping skills'.

Nothing succeeds better than fun and adventure.

Gathering together for the official camp opening.

This camp is dedicated to cubbing in the next 100 years.

Baking bannock bread on a stick was one of the fun activities.

Cubs got to try a compass and GPS device trying to find clues during the 'Navigation' activity.

'Did you hit that duck?' .... cubs experienced the fun of loading and firing a potato cannon.

Spagetti turned out to be an easy lunch to prepare ...

... and enjoy. And the cleanup was 'painless' as well.

Each cub was offered an opportunity to make two crafts, a leather bracelett and a bead neckless.

Another fun activity firing the water rockets ...

... the more you pump, the higher it goes!

Archery from horseback ... did you hit the buffalo?

Cubs were able to try their skills on the archery range.

Some of our free time was spent on a nature hike.

Discussing some safety tips for hiking ...

Running the Camp

Pack circle

Most of us gathered at the Muriel Martin Elementary School parking lot for 6:30 pm on Friday evening. After ensuring that all the forms were collected and everyone knew the route, we all drove to the camp property, located about 30 minutes west of St. Albert.

Upon arrival, cubs and leaders all worked up a sweat carrying the equipment, food, water and personal gear from our vehicles to our designated campsite. Thank heavens that Scouter Paul brought a wagon to help move the heavier items!

The cubs were assigned spots to set up their tents and were finished within an hour. Meanwhile, Scouters Paul and Gord set up their tents and set up the rest of the camp. While our cubs setup their sleeping bags, Scouter Gord attended a coordinating meeting to get the schedule for the rest of the weekend. We ended the night with a snack and hot chocolate to celebrate a solid evening of work.

Wakey ... wakey was at 7:00 am. With a full morning facing us, we fed everyone a sturdy breakfast of french toast, sausages and juice. A couple of cubs were assigned as cook helpers so they could complete requirements for the cooking badge. After breakfast, the cubs were all tasked with washing dishes, pots and pans.

Pack circle

Scheduled Activities

At 9::30 all the cubs ad leaders gathered at the flag pole for our official opening which included breaking the flag, launching a rocket to symbolize cubbing in the next 100 years, singing "O'Canada" and then breaking into groups for the scheduled activities. It was quite a sight to see 167 cubs and 90+ leaders and parent helpers gathered in a horse shoe around the flag pole.

After the opening, the cubs were divided into activity groups, comprising cubs from different cub packs so that everyone could meet and spend time with new friends. At 10:00 am, each of the activity groups moved to an assigned activity stand and started their first assigned activity.

There were nine activities scheduled, each activity normally ran for a 45 minute cycle. At the end of each cycle each group moved to the next activity stand in a round-robin fashion throughout the weekend until each group completed every activity stand. Each activity group was able to complete seven activity stands on Saturday and finished their last two activities on Sunday morning.

Pack circle

One of the advantages of going to the Cuboree is that it offers each cub an opportunity to participate in activities that we normally do not offer throughout the normal scouting year. This year, each of our cubs got the opportunity to:

paddle a canoe,
practise archery skills,
use a compass and GPS device,
bake bannock bread over an open fire,
build and light their own fire,
fire a potatoe cannon and shoot a water rocket.

How We Used Our Free Time

We were lucky that the camp schedule offered an abundance of free time late Saturday afternoon and early evening. Before supper, we gathered our cubs together for some badge work. Organized into tent groups, we asked them to draw camp diagrams and indicate where we practised camp safety and what areas needed improvement.

Pack circle

Next, we grabbed a plastic tarp and headed out on a nature hike for an hour. During our hike, we looked as some flaura and fauna, and erected a quick emergency shelter using the tarp, a downed tree and some small deadfall logs. We stopped near a lake and performed a bare foot inspection looking for blisters and talked about how to take care of our feet when on a long hike.

After supper, we let the cubs use the spare time to practise a skit, song and cheer. All the cubs and leaders gathered at the lake front to participate in a formal campfire where our cubs entertained the crowd with their skit.

Sunday's Activities

Wakey ... wakey was at 7:30 am, followed by a breakfast of french toast or scrambled eggs, fried ham slices and juice. At 9:30 am, our cubs gathered in their activity groups and completed the last two activity stands, followed by the camp closure and a quick lunch. We had camp packed up by 1:30 pm and were well on our way home by 2:00 pm.

Lessons Learned

Did we learn a any lessons? Yep, we sure did and we passed on some useful suggestions for some additional items for our camping equipment action packers. More importantly, we learned that attending a Cuboree is a fun-filled weekend that offers ample opportunity to partake in special activities like archery and canoeing, making new friends from other cub packs, and completing some badge work.

We highly recommend more cubs participate in the Area Cuboree next spring!

Badge Work

Cub badges, stars and awards are meant to recognize those youngsters that actively participate in the cub program and can demonstrate that they have met the badge or award requirement. Once earned, the cub is expected to be able to demonstrate those skills to younger cubs and help them earn the same badge or award.

Cubs who attended the "Area Cuboree" completed a significant amount of badge work, in some cases completing requirements for a badge, start and/or award.

For the Green Star each cub completed "A" requirements 5, 7, 9, and 10; and "B" requirements 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.

Cubs working on the Cooking Badge completed requirements 5, 6, 7 and 12.

Each cub completed requirements 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (one 1-hour hike) for the Hiking Badge.

For the Camping Badge each cub completed requirements 1.b (one camp), 2, 3, 4, 5.a to 5.e (inclusive), and 6.

Each cub completed requirements 4 (one camp), 5, and 6 for the Canadian Camper Award.

Parents, please ensure that the above requirements are recorded as completed in the "Cub Handbook" for your youngster. If a cub has completed all requirements for another badge, please follow the steps to how to earn a badge.

Note - Cubs who completed all requirements for a badge, star or award dunring the Cuboree will be presented those badges during the Group Spring Camp, or at the next meeting of their cub pack.

About the author

Bring on the adventure

Scouter Gord Welling (Rikki) is our Group Administrator and is a Leader with our Monday "Falcon" Cub Pack. He previously served as a Scouter with Wednesday Night Beavers for four years. Gord is also the webmaster for our website and the Buffalo Plains Area website. He has a passion for the outdoors and photography and enjoys taking youngsters out on hikes and camping trips to explore nature.