For the love of scouting!

I know I’m a really good Mom when I think about the countless hours that I’ve invested into scouting, not the least of which is sewing those dreadful troop numbers onto their sleeve. Sad thing is, I did it a few months ago for two kids in Utah, then we moved here and I had to remove them and do two new shirts all over again. BAH! I also had to chop the sleeves off their long shirts because they were way too hot for here, so they are now both sporting short sleeve shirts with the correct patches and numbers. Phew!

Anyway, we are here, and we are back in scouts, and Matthew and Benjamin are THRILLED. They love doing so many fun activities with their friends. It is such a great program. Thought you may be interested in hearing about their new scout troop. They are part of the Aloha council, and they meet every Tuesday from 5-6pm at the church.

The Aloha Council covers the world’s largest geographical area, including Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Marianas, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. The mission of the Aloha council is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Isn’t it a cool patch?

Anyway, the time has come again for the Pinewood Derby. We just had ours in Kaysville a few months ago. Do you think we thought to pack those cars with us? Of course not, so we got to build two more cars all over again, this time without any tools, paint, or means to weigh the car beforehand. Matthew made a lightening bolt last time and came in 30th place out of 32 boys! This time, he wanted to do a canoe. Carving anything out of wood is way beyond Matthew’s abilities, so Dad got to do the carving, and Matthew got to paint the canoe. Daniel donated a lego guy for the cause, and he’s off with his paddle.

Benjamin knew that with a Dad who is nowhere near as hardcore about the race as most Dad’s out there, building a car that would come in first in a race was out of his reach, so he decided that he wanted to go for the most creative car instead. I started to give him random suggestions, and he fell in love with my idea of making a finger. I was a bit worried after he chose that, in case it looked like another flesh colored appendage (as Michael likes to call it), and we’d be made the laughing stock of the ward, but he painted a fingernail and made a diamond ring, so it was obvious to everyone that it was in fact, a finger.

Here are the boys with their cars before the big race. Benjamin was pretty sad when his Dad told him he wouldn’t be able to attend because it clashed with Young Men’s 😦

When we arrived, we had to do the weigh in, and then, as is tradition in American Samoa, if there is an event, there needs to be food, so we started the Pinewood Derby with a pot luck dinner. DELICIOUS!

After the dinner, we had the flag ceremony and awards were given. Matthew earned a silver arrow, and Benjamin earned his Bobcat and two beads. Check out the names of some of the scouts. Pretty cool.

This was so different from our experience with a Utah Pinewood Derby. No electronic track, no racing each car four times, or having it all monitored on computers. Nothing wrong with that, it must be so hard to monitor when you have so many people racing each time, but here, it just wasn’t as intense, someone had made the track the best they could and it was propped up on a ladder, and the boys all cheered when they got to race.

Here we are in the middle of the race…

They gave out ribbons for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for each age group, and then raced the winners to find the overall winners. As you can see, there are only 4 boys in wolves, which is why Benjamin was able to get a ribbon for 3rd place, but overall out of 18 scouts, guess who came in 17th and 18th? Not to worry though, Benjamin had planned for this, and you should have seen that boy leap into the air and run across the hall when his name was called out for the most original design! He was over the moon. Matthew won a ribbon for most creative, so both boys came home beaming. Hooray for scouting, and hooray for happy boys.