This is Akela's Scouting profile

What is your childhood history in Scouting?

I started in Cubs when I was 9 years old. We were at Edgewater School on Tuesday nights. Back then we had grey sweaters with our badges sewn on the arm and we wore a really cool green baseball cap with yellow rope sewn along the seams.

I went on to Scouts at what was then Vivian Graham School (Virginie Roy today). We used to organize weekend camps in the woods on top of Don Quichotte hill. We would follow the power lines from the Ile-Perrot Hydro sub-station for a while, then find ourselves a cool place to camp. We would build a lean-too with fallen trees in the summer, and in the winter we would close in the front with more trees to help keep the cold out - or so we thought.

What is your childhood fondest memory in Scouting?

I remember being at camp and as a whole patrol we secretly snuck into the leaders quarters at night and very loosely wrapped a rope around one of the leaders bunks (with him in it of course). Once the rope was wrapped many times from head to toe, we gave the signal and pulled it taught thereby catching the leader and tying him to his bunk. We thought it was great as we had master-minded such a great plan. Well.... Were we wrong... While we were doing this, some other leaders were moving our bunks out of our cabin. When we got back to where our bunks were supposed to be, we learned who the REAL practical jokers were. It turns out the leader being tied was actually awake the whole time and doing everything in his power not to laugh at us.... DOH!!!!

What are you currently doing in Scouting?

I am now Akela in the Shawnee Pack of the Ohiyo area. I have been involved with Shawnee since 2003 as a parent assistant for a couple of events, at which time I decided that it all looked too cool for me not to be involved, so I allowed the then Akela ; now a dear friend of mine - Patrick Flynn; to think that he had swindled me into becoming a leader. In all reality, I was quite frustrated that he hadn't asked sooner.

Since that time I have earned WoodBadge Basic and WoodBadge advanced for Cubs. I have renewed my long-ago expired first-aid training, and I have recently completed a wilderness first-aid (SOLO) course. I have been following every leader training possible including camping skills, Wilderness Rescue, and canoeing. I am now working on becoming a trainer for leaders as I believe 100% in what we have to offer the youth.

I am Quarter-Master for the Ile-Perrot Group and I am pretty active in our local Scouting community. I try to participate in as many activities as possible, one of which that I am most proud of is our annual spaghetti dinner fund-raiser which I launched in 2005 with the help of several leaders. Our inaugural launch of this event saw some 370 participants. This event has now been replaced by serving chilly in the park during WinterFest.

I have been Assistant Area Commissioner for Special Events in the Ohiyo Area. I was supposed to help organize and oversee all of the special events such as the annual White-tail camp, the Cuboree, the Area Scout camp (we try to let AB do most of that one though), Scouter clubs and hopefully not too much more.

Finally, I have moved from AAC Special Events to AAC Cubs. My primary focus for the Ohiyo area is to promote Cubs using events such as our newly created Sixers and Seconds camps, our annual Cuboree in May, and linking activities between Beavers and cubs as well as Scouts and Cubs.

My philosophy is to run a program that will keep the cubs looking forward to bigger and better things as they grow with Scouting. Having challenges and adventures that push their abilities and confidence in themselves will certainly bring out their desire to push themselves beyond anyone's expectations. As Baden Powel instructed his officers: Teach them, Train them........ Then let them lead.

What are your short term goals for yourself in Scouting?

When I joined as a leader in the Shawnee cubs, I set as a goal for myself a 5 year plan in which I would not follow my 2 children; Mathew and Brandon; through their Scouting career. Now that they are into Scouts and Venturers, I will be a Shawnee leader for at least 1 more year (until the end of the 2008 - 2009 season). By then, my youngest son; Brandon; will be done with Scouts and will have hopefully moved on to Venturers. Mathew should then be a Rover or just about anyway.

To keep having FUN!
What are your short term goals for Shawnee?

  • 2 years ago my goal was to double the size of Shawnee. At 36 registered members this year, we have accomplished this goal - How incredible!!!!!
  • Push our Cubs to do more than they ever thought they could do
  • Teach our Cubs to expect and DEMAND nothing less than the very BEST from all of their Akela's (Leaders, Parents, Teachers, etc.)
  • Impress on the parents of our Cubs just how adventurous and capable our Cubs are
  • To provide the very BEST learning experience possible through teaching, doing and challenging. This means that the cubs will also DO. They will get their hands dirty, they will fail, they will succeed, they will practice. They will fall down and get hurt, but you know what? Skinned knees and bruised shins heal. A lost opportunity to experience something can never be re-taken.
  • To hike, to camp, to canoe, to trek and to discover, but most of all to brag that we have DOB'ed and enjoyed our time together doing so.
  • To challenge our leadership team and the parents to accept the true potential of our youth. To recognize and set goals that are just out of our reach allowing each and every Cub to step forward and shine. This can be anything at all from over-coming a fear of the dark, to hiking the Appalachians.

    • What are your long term goals for yourself in Scouting?

    To teach, to guide and to help myself and others grow to be better. I don't know if I will end-up as a Scout leader or a Venture Advisor or some old cranky know-it-all has-been camping in the woods of TSR until I'm 92 but I do know that I love what Lord Baden Powel started 100 years ago and I know that we have an incredible environment that is being quickly destroyed by technology, growth, and apathy.

    My long-term goal is to help ensure future generations that depend on cell-phones, computers, air-planes and every other technological advancement to know how to hike or canoe deep into the wilderness and know that they are at home where-ever they may be. That they know how to find shelter, warmth, food and water all around them. That they can depend on themselves to provide.

    To help these young people to teach their young how to work as a member of a team. To keep a hold on what it is to help each other and to continue the process of learning, by teaching and doing, and allowing others to do.

    What are your long term goals for Shawnee?

    To keep Scouting. To exist. To remember. To honor those that have come before us