Category: Current Activity

For the first time, the annual Pack Overnight will take place at the New England Air Museum, April 4-5, 2025. The museum is right next to the Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT, about 2 hours by car from Arlington. Their Scout Overnight includes lots of fun activities.

Reserve places for your Scout(s), their siblings (at least 5 years old) and you by January 15. The $75 includes includes museum admission, special activities, food (dinner and breakfast) and the opportunity to sleep among the planes. We’ve reserved 60 places, and it’s first come, first served, so register as soon as you can. To do so, go to our Registration and Dues page (near the bottom, under “Pack 313 Online Payment”) and select the right combination of 1 and 2 people for the “NEAM Overnight”.  Include the names of all adults and children in the bottom box.  Or you can give a check (made payable to “Arlington Pack 313”) to the Cubmaster with attendees names in the Memo section.  Email me so I’ll know its on the way.

Plan to arrive between 5:30 and 6:30 pm on Friday night. After an orientation meeting, dinner will be served, followed by evening activities. We’ll be spending the night in sleeping bags indoors, and sleep pads or modestly sized air mattresses. See the Cub Scout & Scout BSA Overnight Information Guide for a lot more information. On Saturday morning, they’ll give us breakfast, and then we’ll have time to visit the outdoor exhibits. Our overnight gear will need to be packed up before the museum is opened to the public at 9 am. We can stay as long as we want on Saturday (until the museum closes at 4 pm).

The Scout Overnight is for both Cub Scout Packs and for Scouts BSA Troops. As a result, our current Arrow of Light Scouts, who will probably have Crossed Over to a Troop by that time, are of course invited and encouraged to attend too.

If we haven’t received reservations for all 60 places by January 15, I’ll see if we can transfer unused places to another group on the same date.

UPDATE (1/15/2025): All available places have been filled! No more registrations will be accepted.

The Pack has decided to sell Trails End popcorn this year as a fundraiser, and Jeanne (a Webelos parent) will be the leader for this new adventure! Participation is optional for Scouts.

We are only doing what are called “Wagon Sales” or online sales. (Maybe in a future year we will do storefront sales.) Wagon sales are when you collect orders and then you will deliver the product at a later date. With online sales, anyone can buy product and it will get shipped to them directly. (For the online sales, there is a shipping charge for orders under $65. There is also a fee when ordering certain products online that are heavy. If someone orders more than $65 of items, there is still some small fee for certain items.)

More details are in this document, which includes (on the last page) the six items that the Pack is selling in the Wagon Sale.

What’s really nice about this fundraiser is the commission for our Pack is 33% for the Wagon Sales and 35% for the online sales. Also, depending on how much your Scout sells, there is the opportunity to earn an Amazon gift card. Everyone who sells at least 1 item will also receive a participation patch.

There is also a way to donate popcorn to local ‘Heroes and Helpers’. A donation can also help an online consumer reach that free shipping goal. This year, the Council has chosen the VA in West Roxbury as well as Soldiers Angels Deployed Adoption. Each Scout who earns at least $50 in donations will earn a special patch to complement the participation patch.

If your Scout is interested in selling popcorn, please register at http://www.trails-end.com. We are the Spirit of Adventure Council, and our Unit code is SBB5N.

Then download the Trails End app. There, you will find links to training videos, product information, and the Scout & Parent Guide. There is also more information on the Trails End reward program for an Amazon gift card. The App is where you will take orders as well as payment information. We know it’s a lot, but we highly recommend going through all this information. The products and prices are in the App as well.

Once you are registered you can begin fundraising!!

A few last key bits of information:
– In Wagon Sales, make sure to mark the sale as ‘undelivered’
– All orders need to be made in the app by 10/29 as Jeanne will have to place the order for our products.
– The Pack should be receiving the products on 11/16 so consumers should expect their orders after this date.
– If you receive cash, you can convert the cash to credit or you will have to hang on to it to give to Jeanne.

Any questions, please find Jeanne at the Pack meeting or you can contact her by phone or email.

Pack 313 will be camping for two nights (October 25-27) at Camp Carpenter (300 Blondin Rd, Manchester, NH). This is a highlight of the fall Cub Scout season (!), and we hope that you can come to Camp Carpenter for some or all of this time. The whole family is invited. Plan to bring food and supplies that you need for your family (unless you coordinate sharing items with another family or your Scout’s Den). If you have more than one Cub Scout, you can camp with the Den that you prefer. Pack 313 covers the cost of the campsites.

More information about the camping trip is here:

This information includes
a – What to expect, a schedule for the weekend, a suggested packing list, and a Camp Carpenter map

b – A link to required medical forms for children and adults (to be completed by an adult; no doctor required)

If you’ve been on an October camping trip before, you’ll see that we have a quite similar schedule.

The Cubmaster should have emailed you the link to register for the trip. The registration deadline is Monday, October 21.

Ask the Cubmaster or your Den Leader if you have questions about the camping trip. I hope that we’ll see you at Camp Carpenter!

Our 2024 Pack Overnight will be at the Worcester EcoTarium from Saturday, April 27 to Sunday, April 28!  Reserve places for your Scout(s) and you by March 21.  If we still have open places at that time, siblings will be able to register (until March 27). Update: The registration deadline has passed. Thank you to the ~60 who registered!

Plan to arrive between 5 and 6 pm on Saturday.  Eat dinner beforehand or bring a dinner that you can eat in the snack area (and finish by 6:30).  We’ll participate in a special EcoTarium program starting at 6:30 pm.  Part of the program will hopefully be outside, so bring warm enough clothing.  After the program we’ll sleep on the floor (inside) among the museum exhibits.  Bring sleeping bags (and sleeping pads or air mattresses are recommended).  They’ll also have a morning program for us, and we can stay until 10 am on Sunday.  Some of the older Scouts should remember when we attended a similar program in 2020. It’ll be a great time!  More info is on the EcoTarium’s Night Journeys page (https://ecotarium.org/night-journeys/), and you can also look at last year’s FAQs. We also have information for adults who are attending (“chaperones”). The Covid testing, however, has been discontinued.

The Overnight is $60 per person (child or adult) and people can reserve their place by paying online.  Go to our Registration and Dues page (near the bottom, under “Pack 313 Online Payment”) and select the right combination of 1 and 2 people for the Worcester EcoTarium Overnight.  Include the names of all adults and children in the bottom box.  Or you can give a check (made payable to “Arlington Pack 313”) to the Cubmaster with attendees names in the Memo section.  Email me so I’ll know its on the way.

This year the EcoTarium is saving 60 places for us, and it will be great to use them all.

Camp Norse (112 Parting Ways Road, Kingston, MA) is hosting Family Camp this summer, and we’ll be joining them for the May 31 – June 2 (Friday to Sunday) session. This is a camping weekend for the whole family! The cost is $75 per person and includes a group campsite (so plan to bring a tent, unless you need to borrow one), all prepared meals from their dining hall, and activities — a rustic version of Club Med.

The camp counselors have a whole bunch of outdoor activities for kids and grown-ups throughout the day. In a typical summer, these include archery, BB guns, an obstacle course, a BMX bike course and a lake waterfront with swimming, boating, and fishing. During the day, you can move from activity to activity whenever you want. If your family hasn’t gone camping before, this is a great introduction — no need to organize food and activities. Bring a swimsuit, but everything else you need for the activities is supplied by the camp. Go to the 2024 FAQs and Camp Norse map.

You can get information on the Family Camp at Camp Norse page. Following the May 31st – June 2nd (Weekend 1) link will lead you to more information. Almost all of us choose to camp in a tent (that we bring), but feel free to select a different option if you prefer. They’ll place all of us tent campers in a big group site. The camp has some alternatives to tent camping, but they may fill up quickly (and may be a bit away from our tent sites).

When you register, start by selecting one person for a tent (or your other choice). When you select our Unit, you’ll need to answer these questions: (1) Are you in Narragansett Council? No. (2) For “Select Council”, our Pack is in the Spirit of Adventure Council. (3) What type of Unit? Pack (4) Enter Unit Number: 313 (5) Unit Designation? Family Pack (FP). And then later, (6) “Are you camping as a family or a pack?” Pack. Then under “Additional Actions”, you can enter the names of more people. At the end, you should be charged $75 per person. If you want, you can change from paying from your bank account to paying by credit card. It’s fine to attend just part of the weekend, but the camp still asks us to pay the full fee. If/when you do register, please let me know so our Pack will know who to expect.

I hope that you can join us! Camp Norse will send us more details closer to the weekend, and usually these details include their requirement for completed a BSA medical form for every camper (children and adults). A parent should fill out (and sign) Parts A and B as completely as possible. No doctor involvement is needed. Some versions of the BSA medical form include a part C, but this is only for longer events (like summer camp). Note that we’re asked to print and attach “a photocopy of both sides of the insurance card”. Print your medical forms so you can hand them in at check-in.