28 September 2008
BSA & Cubs: Hot Steaming Bowl of Fun
Posted by admin under: Outings .
My Boy Scout troop held a joint event with my Cub Scout pack. Well, there wasn’t actually much interaction. It was more a matter of convenience because the boy in charge of the event has a mom who is leader to over half the boys in the Pack. So, the Cubs planned their calendar to attend bowling on the same day at the same place. That made it very convenient for parents like me who have kids in both units.
If you don’t know about belt loops then you should look it up over here. Basically, it’s a way to introduce the Cubs to various sports and academics and reward them with a metallic loop that fits on their belts. Since we were bowling we went ahead and worked on our bowling belt loop. We’re going to have to go over the rules again in a more relaxed setting because they understood it, but I wasn’t sure how much they were retaining because of all the excitement.
I had two Tigers there and they really enjoyed themselves. One was my son, of course, and the other was a new boy from my recruitment efforts last week. Out of the 15 or so people that told me they would come to the pack meeting to check us out only one showed up, but he is 100% in and already turned in his paperwork and signed up for an event; all in less than a week.
The event was an all-you-can-bowl for 2 hours which worked out pretty well for my orange guys. At about 1.5 they were a little antsy and 2 hours they were slap-happy. It’s a good thing we only had 5 people on each lane so they were able to get their turns quickly. The best thing they learned wasn’t the game as much as the courtesy you extend to other bowlers when you’re playing. It reinforced manners for these guys which is always good. We also cheered for each other’s accomplishments including being able to miss all the pins when the lane had bumpers set up. That’s not supposed to be possible so we high fived if somebody managed to miss all the pins. Their energy is infectious and we enjoyed every single pin that we knocked down. Incidentally, I found out that the other dad is a much better bowler than I am.
I didn’t really get to interact with my older son with the Boy Scouts, but I did check up on them a couple lanes over and they were just having a grand time. We have some new guys in the troop and this was their first outing with us so I made sure that our Troop Guide and the other guys were making them feel welcome. It looked like they were successful in that regard.
Believe it or not my Girl Scout troop has a bowling outing planned for Sunday, but I’ll only be watching that one (they charged more money for their outing than the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts did). I forgot how much fun bowling can be, especially when you’re teaching it to young guys who are loving it.
- GSUSA: It Must Be Bowling Season
- KISMIF Belts It Out
- Boy Scouts Find Football Fans
- Last September Cub Scout Theme
- Bowling for Brownies
