2014 Scouting for Food - Great Job, Scouts!!!

Very proud of our scouts for their contribution to our local council's annual food drive, Scouting for Food.

We don't have the totals from this year, but here are some facts for Scouting for Food:

• The average collected over the last 17 years that our council has had its food drive is 174,109 pounds of food!
• The best year was 2002 when 204,669 pounds was collected.
• Last year, the total was down to 134,599 pounds.  Hopefully we did a little better this year.
• The total collected since 1997 is 2,866,547 pounds of food.  This equivalent to 3,821,862 cans of soup which would stretch out over 241 miles if laid end-to-end and go from Concord to Sacramento to Lake Tahoe to Reno and finally halfway to Lovelock, Nevada!  Now, that's a lot of soup!

Why do we do this?  Because a Scout is helpful.  Scouts help those in need.  Because we have Scout Spirit and live the Scout Law.

Who dies this help?  Mostly families and children who do not enough food.  The Contra Costa/Solano Food Bank serves over 188,000 people each month through direct service programs and has a network of 169 partner agencies.  Over 25 percent of people receiving assistance are children.

What can we do to make Scouting for Food even better?  Double our numbers by inviting a friend or encouraging each other stay out longer to collect food on our collection day.

Thank you!

Scouts ready to pick up food!

It was a great day to pick up food!

Okay, it wasn't all business!

Great job boys (and parents too)!

Finished hanging door hangers!

Circle up boys!

Final ins ructions before we pick up food.

We even got the parents into this photo!

The best part?  Dropping off the food.

Alicia:  Listen...listen...okay, signs up!!

Let's hope that the truck gets filled up.

Food bank truck.

September 18, 2014 Pack Meeting - 7:00pm at Woodside Multi-Use Room

We have our first Pack meeting of the new year scheduled for this Thursday, September 18, at 7pm in the Woodside Elementary Multi-Use Room and have an hour of fun planned for our scouts!

The theme for the month is Cooperation with the activity as Sports.

 The following is the planned agenda for the meeting:

1. Gathering Activity (neckerchief slide and/or duct tape wallet)

2. Opening Flags (Webelo 2s)

3. Announcements

• September 20 - Popcorn Show and Deliver
• September 27 - Popcorn Booth Sales at Sports Basement

4. Games (Indoor Skiing or other games)

5. Pack Activity (continue activities from beginning of meeting)

6. Awards

7. Closing Flags (Webelo 1s)

8. Special Celebration and Treats

Summertime Pack Awards for Pack and Scouts

We once again had an active summer with several pack activities over the summer.  This means that our pack has once again earned a National Summertime Pack Award.  This award is earned by having pack activities during the June through August summer months.

On June 1, the pack hiked Shell Ridge Open Space in Walnut Creek.  It was a beautiful day with vistas as far as the eye could see.  Scouts who attended were: James, Nikoas, Xander, Zachary, Ryan and Owen.  Good jobs scouts!



Cubmaster Llata organized a fishing trip to Los Vaqueros Reservoir on June 22. A good time was had by all who attended.  Attending the fishing trip were scouts James, Nikolas and Sam.  Well done boys!

The main event in July was the Muir District's summer day camp for cub scouts with our pack's Mrs. Lang once again serving as camp director.  The camp featured arts and crafts, archery, woodworking, bb gun, flag football, ultimate frisbee and astronomy to name a few of the activities.  Here's Ryan and Zachary on the archery range with our very own Cubmaster Llata serving as the range master.



Scouts who attended summer camp were: Tyler, James. Nikolas, Xander, Leo, Zachary, Ryan and Owen.

The pack wrapped up July with a bowling outing at Diablo Bowl. Although there were no perfect games recorded, scouts Jacob, James, Nikolas and Xander had a blast!

In August, the pack held two events: frisbee golf in Walden park where they have a nine-hole course and a bike ride covering nearly nine miles through Concord and Walnut Creek that included stops at Heather Farms and Arbolado Park. Trying their hand at frisbee golf were scouts Logan M, James, Nikolas, Xander, Sam, Austin A, Ryan and Antonio. The bike included scouts James, Xander, Zachary, Ryan and Owen.

In addition to the pack earning its summertime pack award, the following scouts have also earned their summertime pack award pins for having participated in at least one pack activity each month of the summer: bear pin earners are Zach, Nikolas and Xander with Webelo pin earners being Zach, Ryan and Owen. Well done scouts!

2014-2015 General Information

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If you are interesting in scouting, please join us for our first pack meeting of the school year on Thursday September 18th at 7pm in the MUR of Woodside Elementary!

2014-2015 Calendar

May 8, 2014 Pack Meeting - 7:00pm at Woodside Multi-Use Room

We have our monthly Pack meeting this Thursday at 7pm.  This is a meeting not to miss as we will be graduating three Webelos from our Pack to Boy Scout troops.  The following is the planned agenda for the meeting:

1. Opening Flags (Webelos)

2. Announcements (Cubmaster Llata)

3. Webelo 2 Awards

4.  Arrow of Light Award Ceremony

5.  Bridging Ceremony

6.  Pack Photos

7.  Closing Flags

8.  Refreshments

We have four scouts bridging onto boy scouting, with two scouts going to Troop 465 and two scouts going to Troop 370.

We will also do a little huddle after the meeting with parents to go over a few details for our upcoming pack camping trip the weekend of May 23-24 to Camp Tamarancho in Marin County.

The other main upcoming event is the advancement ceremony for the remainder of our scouts on May 15 (Thursday) at 7:00pm at Sugurloaf Open Space in Walnut Creek.

2014 Pinewood Derby Car Race Results

Congrats to all racers for a terrific showing at the 2014 Pack 380 Pinewood Derby Car Race!  All scouts and families of scouts deserve a round of applause for making the event a success once again.

Here are the scout cars that were entered this year:

Here are the Open Class cars:

One thing that is for certain is that we had our most competitive races in quite some time with the average time between the top finishers and the cars in the Turtle Race being less than 0.35 seconds.  That is a very small margin so all racers should be proud of their results.

Some thanks are in order for the contributions of the following people without whom the races would not have been a success:

• Mr. Llata for serving as primary race announcer with assistance by Carlos Moreno (the Mt. Diablo Silverado Council District Executive) who stopped by to check out the races.
• Mr. Sigmundson who was our Race Marshall once again.
• Mr. Sumer who helped with pizza pick-up.
• Mr. Eldridge, Mr. Rominger and Mr. Lang who were the official race starters.
• Our Boy Scouts (David, Ethan and Cal) who incidentally are who are Woodside Elementary alums who helped with the running of the races.

If the track we used this year did not look familiar, give yourself a pat on the back for being observant.  We were lucky enough to get the track from a cub scout pack in the area that was looking for a good home for the track because they had gotten a new track.  We now have our own track for the first time!

The race format had each racer run in six preliminary races so that each car would get one turn to run in each of the six lanes.  The results from the preliminary races were used to determine the cars that would be in the Championship Finale and the cars that would be in the Turtle Race.  Here are the results from the preliminary races:  Preliminary Race Results.

The next race was the Turtle Race with the cars with the slowest average times from the preliminary races in the race.  The winner of the Turtle Race was the car making it across the finish line last.  This was a single race winner take all race.  Here are the results from the Turtle Race:  Turtle Race Results.

This year we had two siblings of scouts and three parents entered in the Open Class race.  The race was won by the Bat Car:  Open Class Race Results.

The Championship Finale again had the cars separated by hundredths of second.  For this race, each car was able to run once in each lane.  Here are the Championship results:  Championship Finale Results.

In addition to above results, we also handed out awards to Top Finisher for Tigers, Wolves, Bears and Webelos.  These were the top finishers who were not trophy winners.

Finally, we handed out an award for Spirit of Scouting for the scout/car that best exemplified the spirit of scouting, doing your best, sportsmanship, and individual effort with the making of his car.  This like all of the awards could have gone to a number of scouts, but winner of this award for 2014 was Webelo Han E.

Good luck next year!

2014 Pinewood Derby Cars

Here are the cars for this year. Quite exciting!

We have 24 cub scout cars and 5 cars for the open class race. This may be the largest number of cars that we have ever had.

2014 Pinewood Derby

Pack 380 Pinewood Derby

Friday, March 14, 2014

6pm to 9pm in Woodside MUR

Scouts, start your engines!  Are you ready for a little racing?

Each Pack 380 scout is invited to enter one car into our annual Pinewood Derby race.

Each car must pass inspection by the official inspection committee before it will be allowed to compete. Upon weigh-in the cars will be numbered and held by the pinewood derby committee until the official race.  Once a car passes inspection and is entered into the race, only race committee members are allowed to touch it.

Inspection will take place at the Pinewood Derby Weigh-In on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in the Woodside classroom C-5 anytime between 6pm-8pm.


Remember, that we will be taking orders for pizza and soda at the inspection event.

We will take pictures of the cars that will be used for the driver's licenses that will be granted to each scout that enters a car.  This year we will be administering a driver's license written test with questions on scouting so brush on your skills and knowledge about scouting!

The following are the inspection points

1. The car weight shall not exceed 5.0 ounces. The official race scale shall be considered final.


2. The overall length of the car shall not exceed 7 inches.


3. The overall width of the car shall not exceed 2 ¾ inches.


4. The car must have 1 ¾” clearance between the wheels.


5. The car must have 3/8” clearance underneath the body so it does not rub on the track.


6. The wood provided in the kit must be used. The block may be shaped any way that is desired.


7. The wheels may not be cut, drilled, beveled or rounded. You may remove the seams and imperfections from the wheels.
 The wheels supplied with the kit may be replaced with BSA official wheels.

8. The axles may be polished. The axles supplied with the kit may be replaced with BSA official axles.

9. Only dry lubricants such as graphite or powdered teflon "white lube" will be allowed for lubricating the wheels.

10. Wheel bearings, washers or bushings are prohibited.


11. The car must not ride on any type of springs.


12. The car must be freewheeling, with no starting devices.


13. No loose material of any kind may be used.

14. Details such as the steering wheel, driver, decals, painting, and interior detail are permissible as long as these details do not exceed the maximum length, width, and weight specifications.

15. Cars will be held over night by the race marshall until race day.

At the Pinewood Derby…

•                If a car leaves its lane, at his sole discretion, the track chairman may inspect the track and, if a track fault is found which probably caused the initial violation, the track chairman may order the race to be rerun after the track is repaired.

•                If, during a race, no car reaches the finish line on the track, the car which went the farthest in its lane shall be declared as the heat winner.

Top three fastest cars will win trophies.

Best looking car, as determined by a vote, will win a trophy.

The slowest car that passes the finish line will win a trophy. (aka “Turtle Race” Winner)

Also, we will award medals to the top finisher in each den that is not a trophy winner.

Finally, we will once again award a Spirit of Scouting Award to the scout who best exemplifies the spirit of scouting.

Open Class Race - We are also going to host an open class race.  This race is open to all non-scouts and even scouts who want to enter a second car.  A separate trophy will be presented to the winner of the open class race.  This race will take place after the scout race.

Checkout slideshows from previous Pinewood Derbies:

http://concordpack380.blogspot.com/2012/03/2012-pinewood-derby.html

http://concordpack380.blogspot.com/2011/03/2011-pinewood-derby-car-races.html

City of Concord Tree Planting Event

Volunteers Needed!! 

Invest from the Ground Up will plant over 1700 trees in one day at 20 locations in the SF Bay Area and Southern San Joaquin Valley.  Concord is one of the locations of this event.

Needed are 150 volunteers for the event in Concord.

When:  February 15, 2014, 8:30am to Noon

Where:  Boatwright Sports Complex, Campus Drive and Albert Way, Concord

What:  We're planting 56 trees to beautify our community and reap the many benefits trees have to offer.

Why:  When our 56 trees are mature, they'll remove 2.13 tons of carbon dioxide and 560 pounds of pollutants every year!

How:  Bring shovels, gloves and a water bottle.  Carpooling is encouraged!

RSVP to Chris Llata, City of Concord, chris.llata@cityofconcord.org

Learn more about the statewide campaign at www.InvestFromTheGroundUp.org

This is a great opportunity for scouts!!

January 16, 2014 Pack Meeting - 7:00pm at Multi-Use Room

We have our monthly Pack meeting scheduled for January 16, 2014 at 7pm at the Woodside Elementary School Multi-Use Room.  We have a fun filled evening planned for our scouts.

 

The theme for this month is Games.  Who doesn't like games?  Nobody, right!?  

In a separate message we have also asked the scouts to bring a photo of themselves to the meeting for the project that we will work on as part of the gathering activity.  The project will be to make something for the Blue and Gold Dinner next month.

Finally, we will have a brief meeting immediately after the Pack meeting (should take no more than 10 minutes) to answer any questions about the Blue & Gold Dinner and provide an opportunity for families to sign up to help make the event a success.  Remember that the event will only be as good as we make it.

Now onto the agenda for the meeting:

Agenda

0.  Gathering Activity [Blue & Gold Dinner picture project]

1.  Opening Flag Ceremony [Webelo 1s]

2.  Announcements [Cubmaster Llata]

     Den meetings (January 22 for 4th/5th at 7pm and January 23 for 1st/2nd/3rd at 630pm)

     Troop 262 will attend Webelo den meeting to help scouts earn badge & help with other fun!
     Blue & Gold Dinner on February 7, 2014 in Multi-Use Room

     PerfactPotluck.com to sign up for food for Blue & Gold

     Friends of Scouting

3.  Awards

      Bobcat Badge Ceremony - Ricardo Cruz

4.  Games!!

5.  Raffle

6.   Closing Flag Ceremony  [Webelo 2s/Wolves]

Pack Email Address:  concordpack380@gmail.com