My Cool scouting experience

[Granny_Weatherwax]

This, to me, is what scouting is about.

 

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I met with a wonderful young man this morning to discuss his recent heroic actions in helping save his family from a devastating house fire. Hearing him tell the story, it would seem like no big deal. But after walking through the home, seeing the damage (house is completely destroyed after a 20 minute fire tore through the structure), reading the reports and speaking to his family -- it is an inspiring tale. This 7yo Wolf Scout remembered his training from Cub Scouts, remained calm and did what he knew to be right. He alerted his mother to the fire (his nightlight short circuited and his room was on fire), helped get his younger brothers out of their room, told first responders how many people were still in the house and attended his youngest brother while remaining at the designated meeting place. His ability to take action while remaining calm was noted by law enforcement and fire fighting professionals. All of this occurred between 12:30-1:00am.

 

This is why I am a part of scouting. Those little 20-30 minute lessons in the handbooks are important and can change or save lives. Scouting gives kids the knowledge and skills to act and not react.

 

 

It has been 3 hours since I toured the home and I can still smell the acrid aroma of soot and ash. I can only imagine how that night must have seemed to a small boy.

[wintermom]

Yay! I'm all for first aid education in whatever setting is available. My dc have received some through aquatics and babysitting courses.

[Tita Gidge]

I think those lessons are important in and of themselves, but the greatest gift is a level of confidence in being able to call upon that lesson and ACT.

 

Bravo to that young man, what an awesome demonstration of courage and skills!

 

Thanks for sharing that news story :)

[bettyandbob]

My older ds didnt stay in scouts, but I remember the safety lessons he got. The lessons made a big impression on ds and he had the family practicing everything on a regular basis.

 

Kudos to this little boy for staying calm and using all he learned.

[Tita Gidge]

Very COOL! I'll look forward to reading all about in in Boys' Life.

 

 

My 7 year old is my youngest, my only girl, and she cried when she learned she couldn't be a cub scout.

 

She hadn't ever said she was looking foward to it, so we just assumed she knew she'd never be one. At that point we had some in cub scouts and some in boy scouts. To her 6 year old mind, she could be a cub scout because it wasn't BOY scouts. I guess she never noticed cub scouts being all boys LOL. Observation and situational awareness aren't her cuppa ;)

 

She was devestated for weeks. Even worse than when she realized she couldn't stand to pee like her brothers. AHG has been okay, but they aren't as outdoorsy and hands on as she'd like. Fortunately her brothers make up for that by taking her camping and all that other stuff she's missing out on from cub scouts LOL.

 

She LIVES for Boys' Life to come in the mail. Great idea to keep an eye out for it!

[Unicorn.]

My 7 year old is my youngest, my only girl, and she cried when she learned she couldn't be a cub scout.

 

She hadn't ever said she was looking foward to it, so we just assumed she knew she'd never be one. At that point we had some in cub scouts and some in boy scouts. To her 6 year old mind, she could be a cub scout because it wasn't BOY scouts. I guess she never noticed cub scouts being all boys LOL. Observation and situational awareness aren't her cuppa ;)

 

She was devestated for weeks. Even worse than when she realized she couldn't stand to pee like her brothers. AHG has been okay, but they aren't as outdoorsy and hands on as she'd like. Fortunately her brothers make up for that by taking her camping and all that other stuff she's missing out on from cub scouts LOL.

 

She LIVES for Boys' Life to come in the mail. Great idea to keep an eye out for it!

Get the cub scout manuals, and just do everything with her. Get some friends to join you. One of our scoutmasters did that w/ his dd. GS was just not what she wanted, so they did all the cub scout stuff w/ the girls from her GS troop. I was a den leader, and my girls tagged along for everything, just as I did when my mother was my brother's den leader. I wish the US was just "Scouts" like many other countries, and not separate organizations. GS was boring and shallow imho.

[Tita Gidge]

Get the cub scout manuals, and just do everything with her. Get some friends to join you. One of our scoutmasters did that w/ his dd. GS was just not what she wanted, so they did all the cub scout stuff w/ the girls from her GS troop. I was a den leader, and my girls tagged along for everything, just as I did when my mother was my brother's den leader. I wish the US was just "Scouts" like many other countries, and not separate organizations. GS was boring and shallow imho.

 

 

Not a bad suggestion!

 

I bet between my boys they can even rouse up a good portion of their belt loops to "give" her since we have so many duplicates, triplicates, and more LOL. We've done a few just because they were good life lessons, but what a good idea to expand on that.

 

We went to a GS meet and greet, but it bombed. My DD loves crafts and that stuff but she does that at home; she wanted "scouts" to be what she saw the cub scouts doing. Actual useful, real stuff with some crafts thrown in to round it out. Meanwhile I talked her AHG group into doing a few of the more outdoorsy stuff next year - can't wait!