Recently in Scouts Category

I now have 3 boys selling popcorn for their troop/pack, so it’s hard to not play favorites with 3 different selling links to provide. But we won’t. Supporting any of the boys is appreciated. It goes a long way toward paying for the events being planned this year (Cub Scouts going for an overnight trip at a museum - still being planned - and Will doing some super campouts, bike trips, etc.) and their awards and supplies.

Many of the same favorite flavors and styles return from last year, whether it’s microwaveable popcorn (in butter or butter lite flavors, or the fancier chocolate, caramel and cheese flavors. All microwave products are made with canola oil and all chocolate products contain no hydrogenated oils, so there are plenty of healthy, flavorful snacks to choose from.

Or if you do not want to buy popcorn, would you consider making a donation to buy popcorn that will be sent to our troops? This is also a popular option, and one that’s well-received by the troops and their families who receive the actual product.

Before you navigate around the site and possibly buy some popcorn, please click on one of the links below so that one of the boys will get credit for your order.

• To purchase from Will, click here
• To purchase from Daniel, click here
• To purchase from Sean, click here

And if you are local or will see us in late November, we can personally deliver your order. Just call Chip or Kellie, and we can take your order — prices may be slightly different (typically lower), and you do not always have to order larger quantities (like 2 boxes of microwaveable popcorn at a time).

70% of your purchase will be returned to their units, the council and their Scout rewards. Online purchases help them fund fun, educational activities and help more kids experience all the things that make Scouting great. All of your support is greatly appreciated.

One last reminder about the popcorn fundraiser for Will and his Cub Scout pack. He’s just over halfway to his goal — which will help pay for a trip to Washington, DC. He’s really excited and looking forward to going.

If you don’t want to order online and can receive a local/personal delivery (i.e., you live near us), just reach out to me, and I can let you know what he’s selling. Delivery will be in mid-November. He must finish taking orders by Sunday, November 4.

Thank you.

Just like last year, Will is selling popcorn as a fundraiser for his Cub Scout pack. The pack has a lot of fun events this year, but the big one that has Will most excited — a day trip to Washington, DC in the spring to see a few sites. And with this being his last year in Cub Scouts, this is his final chance to set a new record in amount of popcorn sold.

Many of the same favorite flavors and styles return from last year, whether it’s microwaveable popcorn (in butter, butter lite, and kettle corn flavors, or the fancier chocolate, caramel and cheese flavors.

Or if you do not want to buy popcorn, would you consider making a donation to buy popcorn that will be sent to our troops? This is also a popular option, and one that’s well-received by the troops and their families who receive the actual product.

Before you navigate around the site and possibly buy some popcorn, please click on this link so that Will gets credit for your purchase. And if you are local or will see us in late November, we can personally deliver your order. Just call Chip or Kellie, and we can take your order — prices may be slightly different (typically lower), and you do not always have to order larger quantities (like 2 boxes of microwaveable popcorn at a time).

All of your support is greatly appreciated.

If you cannot click on the first link above, please copy and paste this full URL into your Internet browser address bar:

http://www.trails-end.com/estore/scouts/email_referral.jsp?id=4403561

I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like Pinewood Derby cars can be made so much cooler than when I was a kid. Maybe I just didn’t have the imagination, but it seems like so many other design options are available to Cub Scouts nowadays.

Maybe it’s just the tools that are available. Band saws make the big cuts easy. (Jigsaw, anyone? I bet Dad remembers that.) Electric sanders make the smoothing out process easy. And I’ve got to believe that our color options just weren’t as plentiful, especially for spray paint — spraying it on is so much cleaner and consistent.

Anyway, it’s fun working with Will to get his car done. Race day is tomorrow, so look for more updates soon. (He has a lot to live up to for last year.) But can I say that making a race car is SWEET?

Did you know you can help me earn my own way in Scouting? Just click here and place an order on my behalf. Trail’s End has made a lot of improvements this year. All microwave products are made with canola oil and all chocolate products contain no hydrogenated oils, so there are plenty of healthy, flavorful snacks to choose from.

70% of your purchase will be returned to my council, my unit and my Scout rewards. Online purchases help us fund fun, educational activities and help more kids experience all the things that make Scouting great. Our fundraiser last year helped send us on a camping trip to Luray, VA this fall, including visiting Luray Caverns. It was awesome seeing everything underground! I’m really looking forward to taking trips this spring for overnight trips to the Hampton Air & Space Museum and the battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk.

You can order at any time of the year, though our main sales run through early November. Even if you do not like popcorn or other treats, consider a donation to send one of these treats to our military personnel overseas via a Silver or Gold Level Donation (see the Military Sales section).

Thanks for your support,
Will

If you cannot click on the first link above, please copy and paste this full URL into your Internet browser address bar:

http://www.trails-end.com/estore/scouts/email_referral.jsp?id=4403561

Just a small delay in getting this posted, but I wanted to do it some justice. This past Saturday was the annual Pinewood Derby race for Will’s Cub Scout pack, and Will wanted a more competitive car. So we went with a more traditional car shape and worked together to create something that we hoped would be competitive.

To be honest, it was more competitive than I ever figured.

Will won his race against his Bear den. Well, there are only 2 Cubs in his Bear den, so the competition wasn’t too stiff. (Although the other Cub took second overall last year.) That win got Will pumped.

But it also meant he got to go against the winners in the other 3 dens. His first race was against the winner from the Webelos den, and it was a photo finish. (You can see this race, as well as every other race, in the video below.) The Scouts manning the finish line actually thought Will had won, but the electronic eye said otherwise. (And slowing down the video at home shows that as well.)

But Will won the consolation round race and got into a final run for the top 3. It was close, but he could only pull out a 3rd place finish. (The car he essentially tied earlier won the overall title.) So somehow, Will and his mechanically-ungifted* Dad had constructed a top 3 Pinewood Derby racing car.

Who knew?

*If you need further evidence of my ungiftedness, just consider that the night before the race, I split the wood in 2 separate places, trying to install the wheels, causing one of the pieces to completely break off. And another wheel was first installed to almost rub against the car — it was installed not too straight. Luckily, the kids were asleep and I was in the garage, so the words I chose to use during those 45 minutes were not heard. (And Crazy Glue helped put it back together without the damage being too noticeable.)

I don’t know how we’ll top it next year. There are definitely some lessons learned on putting it together, and we’ll see what style Will wants to go with next year. But it sure doesn’t beat the feeling of winning. Wait a minute — I mean I’m sure Will is really proud of winning. (Yeah, that’s what I meant. Ha ha!)

Many in the family have heard the story, but I now have a little time (ahem!) to tell it in video and pictures. Will has actually never been on an airplane, and back in June, he got an impromptu introduction to flying. It wasn’t a standard commercial airplane. No — he was in the passenger seat in a two-seater flown out of the local Hanover County Airport.

The Cub Scout pack was down for a visit with someone who has an airplane at the airport, so they could see the inside of the plane, the hanger where it was stored, and a little about the airport. See the picture below for the pilot and airplane we visited (as we got published in the local town paper). But no flights were planned.

But before we got that tour, we discovered that the Young Eagles program was at the airport, offering free, short flights for kids older than 6 (sorry, Sean and Daniel — and they really wanted to go, too). After checking with Will if he wanted to do it, we signed the waivers and got him in line for a flight. And what a flight it was — wind direction made takeoffs to the north the right thing to do, so the flight plan was to head north toward Kings Dominion (about 10 miles away), then turn around and come land from the south. So Will, having been to Kings Dominion just 2 weeks earlier (and his first time there, too), was able to see the park from the air. Of course, he definitely liked seeing the Eiffel Tower.

This is the part where I get mad at myself. We had the camera with us, but I forgot to check battery strength. Oops! We got 1 picture on it before it completely died, so I went to my handy, much-lower-res cameraphone. Oh well, at least we have some pictures and videos. Which unfortunately means I get mad about something else — namely, I accidentally deleted (instead of saved) the video of Will’s plane landing. It was a very smooth landing (pilot was excellent) and I was next to the taxiway, so I was right there. But I messed up in clicking and buttons, and the video was gone. So, instead you just get the takeoff and the taxiing for final park.

So, Will got to be the co-pilot of the plane (he had to sit up front), and he got to see Kings Dominion from the air. That’s really cool. Here are some more pictures from the event at the airport. Sean and Daniel did get to sit in a parked airplane and check things out, so that definitely made them a little happier.