Den Meeting for December 8, 2011

Hello to all the members and families of Den 1 Pack 732. First I would like to thank Dan Wilson for his leadership of the Den up to this point. My son Colby always looked forward to Dan and Ian showing up for the meeting, and we hope we will see both of them down the trail again.

This week we will be working on Achievement 6 in the Wolf manual: Start a Collection. Most of this achievement can be worked on at home between you and your family.

So what is a collection? When I was 7 years old I never gave collections much thought. It was all just my stuff! It was often the same stuff that me and my cousins would use to bury in a shoe box in the yard that we called treasure, or those things that reminded me of a cool trip or a fun day with my friends. Living on a farm my collections then were rocks that looked like things, spark plugs and nails, and Hot Wheel Cars. When I was a kid like you I didn't give much thought to all those things and I didn't really take care of them or even given them a proper pirate burial like all good treasure should. What I wouldn't give now to find some of my old nail and spark plug collection!

A collection is your treasure. A treasure though is never worth more than you, your family, and your friends and remember that a thing lost or broken is not worth a lot of sadness or anger.

This is where requirement 6.A comes in: Character Connection - Positive Attitude. I found a funny story on having a positive attitude:

A few years ago, there was a wildlife organization out west that offered a bounty of $5000 for wolves captured alive. Two friends, Sam and Jed, decided to make their fortune. Day and night, they scoured the mountains and forests looking for their valuable prey. Exhausted one night, they fell asleep dreaming of their potential fortune. Suddenly, Sam woke up a bit startled, and saw that they were surrounded by a huge pack of nearly 70 wolves with searing black eyes, and bared teeth. Low growls rumbling from their throats.

He slowly reached over and nudged his friend and said 'Jed, wake up! I think we're rich!'

Gentlemen, Sam had a positive attitude. I hope you do.

When you have a positive attitude and stay cheerful you will always be able to add to your collection and enjoy life. To finish Requirement 6A, talk with your Akela, or other family members about having a positive attitude. Maybe you can throw in the story about Jed and Sam. Think and talk about times when its easy or hard to have a positive attitude and try to have a positive attitude every day.

In Requirement 6.B you actually start to put your collection together by picking at least 10 things to represent your collection. You can make it a collection of anything you like. It can be 10 rocks, 10 shells, 10 leaves, 10 comic books or books, 10 photos. It could be a collection of your favorite things like photos, cars, patches and bottle caps all part of one collection. In 6.B you want to put your collection together in as neat a way as possible and think about how you can preserve your collection for the future when you want to look at it or share it again. You could start with a egg carton, photo album, card sheets, plastic sandwich bags, or boxes.

Finally in Requirement 6.C the Wolf Manual wants you to go ahead and share and explain your collection. You can share your collection with your family and friends. But you can especially share it with your friends at the next Den meeting.

Once you have finished off all three requirements you have completed Achievement 6. Have your Akela sign off on each of the requirements and be sure to bring in your manual to the next meeting so I can record your accomplishments.