This is the first year that our Pack has gone Caroling. We put out an email to our Pack Parents asking for a volunteer to coordinate all of it. A Parent anwered and hit the ball out of the park. We rehershed three songs over the month in Den meetings, Scouting for Food and a Pack meeting. This generally qualified for some of the Music Beltloop. With a Pack of 47 Cubscouts we had 22 Cubscouts show up along with other sister and brothers who sang. Our coordinator found music to accompany us, even including Cubscout Vespars.
I am very proud of the Cubscouts and that we did this. I suspect that this will turn into a tradition. I also suspect that we can come back to do other activities such as Memorial Day and Flag Day.
Due to Youth Protection, I have smudged out the faces of those under 18, if they were not hidden.
Pack 46 in Fayetteville, Ark., made our annual caroling trip to the local VA Home last Tuesday. We had a parent volunteer to call and arrange a date and time, but we’re familiar with the logistics after doing this for several years now.
Out of 95 Cub Scouts in our pack, we had 37 scouts plus about 10 siblings and 20 parents and leaders show up. So, we split into two groups and hit two different floors. We had song sheets and sang familiar songs. We have several very musically-talented leaders and parents. One group had a guitarist and the other had a guitarist and a fiddler. We sang for about 20 minutes.
The boys also handed out Christmas cards that they made as a gathering activity at our November Pack Meeting, which was organized by our Webelos II den.
Pack 37 in Collierville, TN made our first caroling event this year too. We visited an assisted living center last Sat. A mom burned 7 classic songs on a CD, printed the words for the boys, and hung bells from strings as giveaway decorations. We prepared simple ornaments to pass out to residents too, but otherwise we didn’t have to practice the songs at all. Silly Santa hats and antlers made things even more festive for the 15 scouts and 5 siblings. The event took 45 minutes, but afterward a resident gave us thanks for ‘breaking up the monotony.’ After an encore ‘We Wish you a Merry Xmas’, I think we got more out of this than they did! We used the event to finish up an outstanding service project for the Citizenship belt loop, and I like the idea of including it for the Music belt loop too. Caroling is a very good idea for the scouts. Thanks for sharing, Adam.