Isaac Lynn is a member of Cub Scout Pack 302 in Kennebunk. He said he enjoys the activities, from wilderness survival skills to identifying the constellations to the fitness challenges and more. The pack is looking for more cubs and more leaders and is hosting a event 5-7 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Masonic Hall in West Kennebunk. Tammy Wells photo
KENNEBUNK – They learn how to survive in the wilderness, how to make a shelter, identify the constellations in the night sky, tie knots, and conduct fitness challenges. They learn how to make pizza, and they make friends.
Young people from Kindergarten through Grade 5 can learn all this and more, with Cub Scout Pack 302.
They learn with the help of parents who volunteer to become leaders, and from each other.
Just ask Isaac Lynn, who had been involved with the pack for the past several years.
“I mostly like the fact you can do activities and fun things that get your heart going,” said Lynn.
There are pinewood derbies and Klondike derbies and camping once or twice a year.
Now the pack is looking for more young people to be cubs, and more parents to become cub pack leaders.
Isaac Lynn, his father Henry, the pack’s treasurer; and Andrew Palmeri, one of the Cub Scout leaders and the liaison or executive officer of the pack to the charter organization, York District Lodge A.F. & A.M., talked about Cub Scouts on a recent day and an upcoming event.
Palmeri, who earned his Eagle Scout 31 years ago, became involved locally when his boys were young. Now, they have made their way through Cubs to Scouts and beyond – one has achieved Eagle Scout, and another is in the process, he said.
Henry Lynn became involved when his older son Ethan, who is now a Boy Scout, started with the cub pack. He said the skills the cubs learn have been helpful to him – like knot tying; and he noted the cubs form bonds with each other.
Scouting – and this cub scout pack – had a more robust membership not that many years ago. Palmeri said there were 25 -30 cubs in Pack 302 going into the pandemic; now, the numbers have dwindled to around 12 or 13, he estimated.
During the pandemic, the pack, and scouting in general, shuttered operations briefly, but soon restarted, with social distancing, mask-wearing and outside activities, Henry Lynn and Palmeri said.
But the pandemic took a toll – in West Kennebunk and in cities and towns across the nation. According to a June 2021 New York Times story, Boy and Girl Scout organizations reported their membership together plunged by 1.7 million young people from 2019 to mid-2021.
And it is from this cub pack, which serves Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel, that the local scout troop is formed, Palmeri and Henry Lynn pointed out. If there are fewer cubs, there are fewer scouts.
“We’re looking for parents to be leaders,” said Palmeri. “We need three or four more adults to sign up and take an active role.”
Three members of Cub Scout Pack 302, Henry Burchianti, Ethan Lynn, who has since gone on to become a Scout, and Isaac Lynn took part in a Klondike derby – all part of the fun of being a cub scout, those involved with the organization say. Henry Lynn photo
He said the time commitment for leaders amounts to a couple of hours a week.
As well as looking for leaders, they are encouraging boys and girls who have an interest and are kindergarten to Grade 5 age to become cub scouts.
On Thursday Sept. 8, Cub Scout Pack 302 will host a sign-up event from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Masonic Hall, 158 Alfred Road in West Kennebunk. Leaders and clubs will answer questions and take registrations.
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