Webelos-o-ree 2024

My youngest went to the local Webelos-o-ree, a day of fun stations for the oldest cub scouts. Local troops host each station. They teach various skills and try to sell the boys on joining their troop. Parents go along and meet the leaders of the troop (typically the older boys since troops are scout-led).

Our first stop was a gaga ball pit. Gaga ball is like dodge ball, but the ball needs to hit a player below the knee to get the player out. The game has no teams, every man is for himself. My son took a "let everyone fight each other" approach, calmly waiting by the side for the crowd to thin down. 

Going for the under-the-leg shot

Keeping his eye on the ball

The next station was the axe yard. Here, cub scouts learn safe handling of saws, hatchets, and axes. This particular station was run by my eldest son's troop, so the boys got to see each other.

Using an axe

Practicing sawing with a sibling

Later on, my son had to practice his army crawl under a bunch of strings pretending to be lasers. The station also had some knot-tying skill challenges. 

Being safe

Down by the water, a teamwork exercise challenged the boys to communicate without using words (they were only allowed to say "lava"!). They had to cross a field of lava with only a few boards of different lengths. It was a fun exercise. Since my son was alone, we joined up with another pack for the group challenges.

Getting to the other end

The last station before lunch involved climbing to the top of a wall. Some of the boys could make it on their own, some needed help. They worked together to lift up or pull up the boys who needed assistance (my son included), eventually getting everyone up.

Seven on the wall

We had lunch at my older son's troop, which was a bit of a hike from the wall. After eating, we had to go back to the middle of the trail for the shooting range. After joining a different pack for the trail, we had a good time with the bb guns. 

Posing with Pack 737

Practice with the rifle

Other stations we went to were the first aid station (with some realistic-looking injuries), orienteering (with some awesome home-made cookies), and more teamwork challenges. We had a fun day but didn't camp there, so we headed home for dinner.

Webelos-o-ree 2023

My youngest son went to Webelos-o-ree in his Scouting BSA district. It's a chance for older cub scouts (4th and 5th graders) to visit with some scout troops (the middle school/high school-aged scouts). The younger ones go on a trail from station to station, doing different activities at each. The activities align with the rank advancement goals of Webelos and give the kids a chance to interact with troops that they might join in the future.

Typically, cubs go and camp for the weekend but the weather was bad and the schedule was tight for us, so we drove up early Saturday morning and just did the trail rather than the whole experience (which includes a campfire and camp-wide competitions, in addition to outdoor sleeping). 

After going to morning reveille (where we did our den cheer and found out what was going on that day), we started the trail at a station with gaga ball, box oven cooking, and fire building. I didn't get any pictures there. The adults from the troop did have chili and cornbread for parents. We adults sat with some of the troop's leaders and discussed how they implement the BSA program, where they met, what the fees were, etc. It's a conversation that happened at every station, more or less. 

Our next station was the rifle range, where the boys got to shoot BB guns. Our den enjoyed it very much.

 

Getting instruction from an older scout

Adult leader watches 

At each station, we repeated the den cheer as loud as possible, because it is fun to be loud!

Giving the den cheer

A later station had knot tying which is not my son's favorite scout activity but he did well.

Lashing two sticks together

In a nod to the previous day being Friday the 13th, one station had the boys identifying the bones of animals before they could come back to life and hurt someone. 

Are you for real?

Glad to have some hot chocolate to help identify critters

Further along, one troop was roasting a pig on a spit, which was impressive. The charcoal pit had been going since the early morning and the pig still was not ready.

Pig roast

Later, at a first aid station, the boys learned how to transport someone without moving them too much.

An improved stretcher

Building fire without matches or a lighter is a classic scout skill that they practiced at another station. It was hard to get the wet kindling lit in the rainy, cold weather.

Making sparks

Blowing to encourage the fire

The final station we went to was the axe yard. There, scouts learned to use saws and axes in a safe manner.

Ready to chop some wood

Getting some pointers

A good chop!

In the saw station, he saw his older brother who helped him use a bow saw.

Bow-sawing brothers!

We came home with a lot of happy memories and one target sheet full of BB holes.

A bang up job

Webelos-O-Ree 2018

My older son and I went to the National Pike District Webelos-O-Ree at the Baltimore Area Council's campground north of Charm City (so far north, it's almost in Pennsylvania!). We arrived Friday night, before all the action. We were able to set up our tent and get some pizza for dinner with hot chocolate for dessert.

Broadcreek Campground HQ

Making hot chocolate in the dark

The next morning we started with a flag ceremony followed by a gun safety presentation at the shooting range. At the range, our Arrows of Light den picked up the map of stations and the scavenger hunt sheet. We'd use both throughout the day.

Flag ceremony

Getting the map and scavenger hunt

Our first station was a dutch oven cooking station that was fun but too early for any eating. The next station was open fire cooking, including a pig roasting on a spit! The scouts at that station also taught us about different kinds of burns.

Roasting a pig

Demonstrating a third degree burn with quesadillas

We followed our map to the next station which was actually a Webelos I station, not for the Arrows of Light. We didn't know so we practiced putting up tents. It worked out for us since one of our boys hadn't finished that requirement.

Pitching a tent

Almost done

Further on, we discovered the actual next station for the AOLs. The station had a few mental games or challenges, including one where the scouts had to get on the other side of a tarp without stepping off the tarp. I don't know what the solution was because the adults at the station were chatting us up about their Boy Scout troop.

Figuring out the puzzle

Lake-side view

Further along, the boys faced another challenge--scaling a wall where only three boys could be on top at a time. It took a while and some demonstrations by the Boy Scouts to get things working properly.

Demonstrating the start of scaling the wall

My son made it to the top!

Later, we were at the axe/saw station where my son used a bow saw, a hatchet, and an axe.

Bow saw work

Axe swinging

Landing with authority

After lunch, we went to a first aid station that included a house with some realistic-looking injuries. The boys did not actually apply first aid techniques, they just answered questions about what they should do with various injuries, including third-degree burns, axe injuries, and an arrow-pierced scout.

Ouch!

We visited two rope-themed stations. One of the stations was focused on making knots, including the classic square knot and the hitch knots every scout learns. The presentation ended with a tug-of-war between the cub scouts and the boy scouts.

Tug of war

The second rope station focused on lashing and had a see-saw made with bamboo and ropes. We ran into a previous den leader here so I was too busy chatting to take a picture.

We finally made it back to the shooting range. My son enjoyed it a lot and did well.

Getting pointers on pointing his rifle

On target

His target

The station after shooting was fire making. The Boy Scouts here had fine presentation skills. Building a fire was a fun group activity (even if previous stations had some overlap).

Learning about fire

The final station of the day involved a demonstration of cooking in box ovens and a big gaga ball pit. It was a great way to end the stations.

Cooking without gas

The end of the day had a flag-lowering ceremony and some instructions for the campfire. Our pack signed up for two skits.

Closing flag ceremony for the day

The campfire

That night had about ten minutes of fierce wind that blew our tent down. Unfortunately, the damage was not just knocking it over. One of the tent poles snapped off its attachment, requiring a ton of duct tape to make it through the rest of the night. Every couple of hours I woke up and pushed the tent pole back into place.

In the morning, we packed up pretty quickly when we woke up around 6 a.m. Having the tent literally falling down around you was strong motivation. Since we had everything packed up before breakfast, we decided to hit the road afterward. We didn't stick around for the flag ceremony or the camp-wide games.

It was a fun though cold weekend. We're sorry we didn't go last year.