Sunday, February 20, 2011

Scouting Saturday on a Sunday! Blue & Gold

Okay, I meant to post last night, but I was just too stinkin' tired.  So I'm posting today instead.  Unfortunately, we didn't get as many photos as I would have liked.

For those of my readers who aren't into the whole Scouting thing, Blue & Gold is a bit of a birthday party for Cub Scouts.  It is the annual event where typically a lot of the kids are awarded their ranks.  This year, our pack chose to incorporate the Arrow of Light ceremony into the Blue & Gold Banquet, which makes for a very long ceremony, and I'm afraid by that time, most people were no longer really paying attention to those Webelos II kids and all that they had accomplished.

We went as a family -- all of us -- with two Cub Scouts, and the two Boy Scouts were part of the crossover ceremony.

We listened to a fascinating speech made by a woman whose father was involved in Scouting for 75 years, nearly from the beginning.  It was pretty amazing to hear her tell stories of her father learning from a Civil War veteran.  I had a little girl begging me to take her to the bathroom at that point, so I'm a bit fuzzy on just WHAT he was learning.

The Tigers were the first den to be recognized.  Unfortunately, my den has one requirement remaining before earning their Tiger badge, and there were only two kids at Blue & Gold.  Those two, however, were awarded a fistful of progress towards rank beads, and a Map & Compass Belt Loop.

They worked up through the dens until they got to the Webelos I.  Here's the whole group of 'em...  Thomas is on the end.


Initially, the kids were awarded activity badges and belt loops and the like.  Then a smaller group was awarded their Webelos badge.  Here I am pinning a badge on Thomas.  He actually earned it back in December, so it is the special 2010 edition of the badge.

The rest of the event focused on the Webelos II kids... they were presented awards, then the Arrow of Light Ceremony, and finally they crossed over the bridge to become Boy Scouts.  Their parents take off the Cub Scout parts of the uniforms (Webelos neckerchiefs, blue epaulets), the kids then cross the bridge, and the Boy Scouts on the other side put on the Boy Scout uniforms.  Here are my Boy Scouts putting on the epaulets -- William in the red hat:
And another photo where you can see Connor and William a bit more clearly as the Den Chief puts the new Boy Scout into his neckerchief:


It was a really fun day!

And I had a couple people ask if I was doing a Scouting Saturday post so they could link to it... so I am going to make that happen.  :) 

3 comments:

Michelle Smith said...

What a great time y'all had! Love all the photos. It is such an important memory, isn't it? It will be a few years until our next Blue and Gold, since we have mostly girls and our older son is now a Boy Scout. Now I'm looking forward to the Blue and Gold Banquets again. :)

*~*~* Tracy said...

Love the pictures! Our Blue and Gold is next Saturday and my little Bear is so excited...I am too. :D

Cristi said...

It looks like a lot of fun for everybody. Ours is also next weekend.