Cub Scout members and leaders celebrated Riverside’s Pack 24’s 75th anniversary at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, by throwing the pack a birthday party, complete with games for the Scouts and birthday cake.
“We started out with a little introduction explaining Scouting was started in 1910 in the United States, and shortly after that, the first Cub Scout pack started in Port Angeles, [Washington,] which was in the 1920s. The first one locally was in Naperville, which started in 1945, and we started in 1951,” said David Reed, the pack’s Cubmaster and the face of its leadership. “We’re one of the oldest Cub Scout packs in the whole country.”
Reed said the group gave the Scouts honorary patches from BSA, the organization that oversees Scouting, to mark the anniversary.
“We had a lot of party games, and it was definitely a lot of fun,” said Dan Hunt, one of the pack’s committee chairs alongside his wife, Kelly Rathbun.
At the meeting, Hunt said he was in charge of the “keepy-uppy” game — where you don’t let a balloon touch the ground — while Rathbun said she was busy cutting the birthday cake.
“Committee chair is kind of like the administrative lead of the pack. David is the Cubmaster, so he runs the meetings. He’s the face. He runs the show. He’s the fun guy that all the kids pay attention to,” Rathbun said. “We help organize events.”
“We keep on top of health forms, on top of renewing the charter every year, and try and keep on top of payments that are coming in and out,” Hunt added.
Reed said the pack has also earned two separate “muddy boot” awards for doing the most camping out of any pack in the district.
“We love getting the kids outside. The parents and the kids are very passionate about it. We hike all through winter,” he said. “We’re a volunteer organization, so we have really strong parent leadership. We’ve got parents involved at every level.”
Reed, Hunt and Rathbun said they all began in their positions about two years ago.
“We have two Scouts in the pack. We have a son who’s in fifth grade and a daughter who’s in third. They both started in kindergarten,” Rathbun said. “From the get-go, Dan was asked to be a den assistant, and then there was need for him to move up from den assistant. They needed a den leader. And then, the need came up two years ago to be do more, to be a committee chair.”
Reed said he got so involved because of the values Cub Scouts instills in his children.
“At the beginning and the end of every meeting, we say the pack oath and the pack law,” Reed said. “We remind the kids, every time, ‘The Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.’ These are things that I think it’s really good to teach the kids, and I really love how active Pack 24 in Riverside is.”
“It’s a screen-free activity,” he added. “It’s an opportunity for the kids to be away for the whole weekend. They have fun playing games. They have fun being outside.”
Hunt and Rathbun said participating in Cub Scouts as a family has given way to a deep community within Riverside.
“At a campout, the kids are running around, having a good time, and the parents are getting a chance to talk and connect,” Rathbun said. “We definitely feel connected to that group, which, then, I think, connects us to Riverside as a whole. We get kids from every school and all across the area, so it really gets us more connected in the community.”
“We see parents all over town that we met through Scouting,” Hunt added. “Riverside is a small town to begin with, but being involved in something like this, you really get to know a lot of people and see a lot of people all over town. You definitely have a friend pretty much everywhere when you’re involved in Cub Scouting.”
