One of the reasons that we chose for Lamb 2 and 3 to not do Cub Scouts is because it is so expensive.* Dues are $225 per year. They can do fundraising to lower that amount or they can just pay the dues and not fundraise. Last year dues for those that fundraised were $100. That really was a bargain considering everything they do during the year.
This year they sold meat sticks and popcorn. Each boy sold to their own family and friends. They also got together several Friday nights and Saturdays this fall and sold outside of stores. Sometimes people gave them donations at the stores too.
We received a couple of e-mails this fall that fundraising was not going very well-pleading for Scouts to sell more before the fundraising ended. I was trying to figure out what we were going to do if the dues were $100 like last year or even higher. I was trying to figure out if we could afford it in our budget or if I needed to ask them for some financial help. I did have Lamb 1 attend every single fundraising opportunity there was this fall and he also sold a lot of meat sticks and a little popcorn to our family and friends. I figured if he had done all that then they would be more likely to help us if we couldn't afford the dues.
Today we were notified that the Pack had one of their best fundraising years ever! Each boy that participated in fundraising will only need to pay $40 dues. All those weekends selling were worth it. They sold A LOT of $1 meat sticks!
We can afford $40 dues. We told Lamb 1 how proud we are of him. We plan to buy a treat/prize to reward him since we saved paying Scouts so much money this year. I'm not sure what that is going to be yet, but he has all kinds of suggestions. He may also be rewarded by his Pack, but we'll have to wait until Wednesday for that.
The last two years during the fall we have been extremely busy. Most of that was Cub Scouts-both fundraising and other Scout activities. We are going to be so happy to have that family time on weekends back. Even the neighbor kids will be glad when Lamb 1 is done with Cub Scouts and available to play on weekends.
Lamb 2 will have a turn to pick an activity in February when Lamb 1 is done with Cub Scouts. I'm not sure what activity he will chose, but he has talked about gymnastics. I really don't think Lamb 2 or 3 would have wanted to put this much time into Cub Scouts. I think we will all be happier with a once a week activity or class.
*There are many other reasons why we chose to not allow Lamb 2 and 3 to do Cub Scouts. I won't go into all of them on my blog, but the main reason was the time involved. It split our family up for Lamb 1 to go with Ram every weekend fundraising and the other Lambs and I stayed home. Having the other Lambs join Cub Scouts too would have meant 3 different nights a week at den meetings and we were not willing to commit to being away from home that much. Plus it would have added more dues if all three would have been in Scouts. It was a great experience for Lamb 1 to be in Cub Scouts and I loved the activities like a hike that all the Lambs could do together. I'm glad that Lamb 1 was a Cub Scout but we learned from his experience that we don't want Lamb 2 and 3 to be Cub Scouts. Lamb 1 is also not going on to Boy Scouts, but that is for completely different reasons.
If you have a son that is in Cub Scouts and your Pack dues are not as expensive as ours, count it as a blessing. But it just didn't work for our family for where we live. I think what the boys learn at Cub Scouts is priceless, but we were not willing to invest that much time in Cub Scouts-especially in fundraising. We noticed that many of the boys involved were either only children, only boy in their family, or big age difference in their siblings. That would make a big difference if there were no other male siblings close in age like we have.
No comments:
Post a Comment