A unique event is scheduled for this Saturday, July 12, at O’Bannon Park in hopes of getting the Brewton Cub Scouts going again.
Rick Thelen, cub master, is taking over the troop and has high expectations for the Brewton area after coming from a large scouting background in north Alabama.
“We are heading up a project to get Cub Scouts in the Brewton area going again,” Thelen said. “We are new to the area as we moved here in January. We have two boys. The oldest is in Boy Scouts and the other is a Webloe in Cub Scouts.
“Scouts in the area hooked up with the Boy Scouts because there is no Cub Scouts,” he said. “There is a unique history of scouting in the Brewton area.”
Thelen said when he and his family moved to Brewton, there were nine boys in Boy Scouts and none in Cub Scouts.
“We talked to the regional Gulf Coast Council and they said the Brewton pack has not been rechartered for the last two years,” he said. “I talked with my wife and decided to take on the project. If we have no Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts will dry out. They have to work through Cub Scouts to Webloe to Boy Scouts.”
He said the family moved from Madison, where “scouting is huge.”
“The groups there were affiliated with churches like down here,” Thelen said. “A single church could have two troops with about 125-150 in a troop.”
Thelen said he and his wife both said that scouting could be a great opportunity for the Brewton area.
“Our boy was the only one in Cub Scouts,” he said. “We are starting off small, but we had a roundup in the middle of May and signed up five more boys. We had our first event at the scouting hut and this Saturday will be our second event. We hope to have one event each month in the summer.”
Thelen said he hopes get enough participation to combine the different packs together and as the numbers grow.
“We will break it up into Tigers, Bears, Wolves, Bobcats and Webloes,” he said. “We are starting small and will do activities with Tuesdays being typically scheduled as meeting nights. We will have a parents meeting where we will discuss goals and other things. We want to meet two or three times a month at the hut at the Brewton’s First United Methodist Church.”
As for the treasure hunt this Saturday, those interested are scheduled to meet at O’Bannon Park in Brewton from 9 a.m. to noon.
“The event is open for kids going into first through fifth grade,” Thelen said. “They can bring the family and we will hide things in the park and they will be given different sheets to try and find them. We will provide snacks and other things and we invited all to attend and come out and have some fun.
“We encourage a lot of community involvement and look for great organization to come out of this.” he said. “I am very excited. Scouting gives a different opportunity for Brewton to benefit from.”
For more information, contact Thelen at 251-369-1818 or his wife Nancy, who is the committee chair, at 231-798-8115.
The next event will be Tues., Aug. 26, and will be a craft event and another roundup.