I spent yesterday evening at the American Legion hall in Kennett Square, attending a special ceremony in which Cub Scouts "crossed the bridge" into Boy Scouting (the Young Relative was one of them). Each boy held up one of the wooden planks representing the Scouting ideals (excellent qualities like cheerful, reverent and thrifty), read its description out loud, and then placed it on the bridge frame that they would cross, with their beaming parents looking on. They were welcomed on the other side by Scouts from the Chadds Ford and Unionville troops, who shook their hands and helped them on with their new neckerchiefs. They were also issued Scout penknives and Scout handbooks.
Before the ceremony the boys competed in two contests: erecting and then tearing down a tent (it was obvious that the Boy Scout team had this down to a science), and launching paper airplanes through a hoop mounted atop a ladder (the leaders did no better than the boys). One boy's airplane almost took out an unsuspecting leader; I fear that boy may be facing some latrine duty.
The evening concluded with refreshments. There were two cakes, connected by a bridge, with each cake sporting a photo of the Webelos. One boy I talked to managed to get the piece of cake showing his own face; "it tasted weird," he said.
In case you don't have a Boy Scout in your household, Webelos is an acronym for "We'll Be Loyal Scouts."
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