Photo By Staff Sgt. Richard Hoppe | A Cub Scout with Cub Scout Pack 3401 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba receives rope climbing...... read more read more
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Parents and children gathered on Marine Hill Saturday morning as U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Cub Scout Pack 3401 held its monthly pack meeting. However, this meeting was unlike their typical pack meetings.
However, this meeting was unlike their typical pack meetings. The Cubs and their families were met by Marines with the U.S. Marine Corps Security Forces Company. The Marines volunteered their time to show the youngsters a little about being a Marine, team building and safety awareness.
“A lot of times I think parents, especially fathers, are kind of scratching their heads, wondering, ‘what can I do with my son.’ And of course, what son doesn’t want to do something with his dad,” said Duane Neyens, the Bear Den Leader for Cub Scout Pack 3401. “Well with the Cub Scout program, you can’t send your cub to scouts once a week and expect them to get all the advancement. The program is designed so that the parents have to be interacting with their sons in order for their sons to advance.”
The Marines began by leading the Cub Scouts through stretches, warm-up exercises and some martial arts. Afterward, the Marines divided the Cub Scouts into smaller groups. Each group spent about 10 minutes at several challenging stations that included Marine style face painting, weapons familiarization and safety, grenade throwing and Humvee familiarization and vehicle safety. From there, the Marines helped the children through an obstacle course by lifting them up to high-bars, navigating them through large wooden obstacles and showing them how to properly ascend a rope climb. The Cub Scouts and their families finished off the meeting with an appetizing MRE lunch and a group photo with the Marines.
“We’re lucky enough, down here, to be able to come out today with the Marines and go to these events,” said Suzanne Kraynack, mother of a Webelos Scout and the awards coordinator for the GTMO Cub Scouts. “They’re learning skills … they’re going and doing campouts … hiking and identifying plants and animals, conservation and things like that.”
The Cub Scouts are divided up by age, starting with the Tigers who are 7 years old, the Wolves are eight, Bears are nine, and finally, the Webelos are 10 years old. Children age 11 and up are able to transition into, or join, the Boy Scout Troop at GTMO. Each group attends a weekly den meeting, a monthly pack meeting, gets the opportunity to earn badges and participate in fun activities with fellow scouts and
children.
“There are opportunities to build bird houses. There are opportunities to build pine-wood-derby cars or rocket-derby cars, or go on adventures. There are family camping outings, or using tools or all those things that fathers thought, ‘hey that’s something really good to do with my son,’” Neyens said.
At the end of the event, the Cub Scout Leaders asked any of the Marines who were prior Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts to raise their hands. The children’s eye’s lit up as many of the Marines who helped them achieve their goals throughout the day started to reach toward the sky, one by one.
“There are so many, as we found out here today, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, who have been in the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts at some point in their life. They’re skills that you learn that you can carry on through your daily jobs,” Kraynack said. “Cub Scouts is a lifelong endeavor.”
| Date Taken: | 01.31.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2015 13:59 |
| Story ID: | 153656 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Web Views: | 159 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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