Scouts learn skills, teamwork
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on July 22, 2016 1:46 PM
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Mike Miles shows a rubber mallet to boys during the Cub Scout day camp Thursday. Miles instructed the Scouts about various woodworking tools while teaching that safety is a major aspect of any job.
Heather Lilly of Dudley became a Girl Scout in the first grade, and her three children are following in her footsteps as Scouts.
Andrew Flora, 11, Jordan Flora, 8, and Gracelyn Lilly, 5, attended the Torhunta Cub Scout Day Camp's Cublympics at the Old Waynesborough Park Thursday morning, while their mother served as cubmaster for Mount Olive's Pack 34.
Andrew is a Boy Scout who volunteered as a den chief for the Tigers and Wolves. Jordan recently earned his Bear badge, and Gracelyn will join the Girl Scouts when she starts kindergarten this year.
"We're a Scouting family," Ms. Lilly said. "We've been involved in Scouting for six years now."
She said her father was a Boy Scout leader, who taught his daughter values and skills, which she is now instilling in her children. Ms. Lilly said she learned from her father how to cook over a fire when she was a Brownie in Girl Scouts, and Andrew and Jordan cook -- and clean -- now to become responsible adults.
"My theory is, if you teach them life skills they can pretty much do anything," she said.
Ms. Lilly instructed 19 Tiger and Wolf Scouts during the Cublympics to teach them teamwork. Three Scouts lined up behind each other, hands on the shoulders in front of them, and weaved around cones while avoiding tripping the Scouts in front.
Andrew handed the Scouts pool noodles -- a Cub Scout javelin -- and they threw them toward hula hoops on the ground.
"I'm helping with this obstacle course kind of thing," Andrew said. "And I'm helping Scouts get achievements and stuff. When I was little, kids like me helped out to give back to the Scouting camp."
His brother, Jordan, sat with fellow Bears at picnic tables across the park's bridge to watch a cubmaster hammer different stamp images into a leather belt. Jordan tapped the belt punch with a mallet to put an image of a dragon on his belt.
He then watched his Bristle Bot -- the head of a toothbrush with a cell phone battery and vibrating system -- zoom off the edge of the picnic table.
"We get to do the same things that are different that we did last year," Jordan said. "It's really fun and people like playing with other people. We get to have lots of fun."
The older Scouts had fun, too. Scouts built wooden tool boxes with the assistance from Scout leaders.
Martin Clemmer, program director for Wayne, Johnston, Sampson and Duplin County's Tuscarora Council, observed each age group work together to make leather, build tool boxes or just have fun throwing pool noodles.
"Pretty much the whole point is to get the outdoor experience just so they can get out of the house and do something," he said.
He then talked about the last day of Cublympics, which is Saturday for Family Day.
"There's a lot of single parent families these days," he said. "There aren't that many families that sit at the dinner table at 5:30 in the evening. The good old fashioned family values are being shifted, and the Boys Scouts is that classic program that teaches those values and tries to build a stronger family."