Loyals?

[Scouting Mom]

Anyone ever heard the term "loyals" when referring to cub scouts? I saw a message floating around our district communication board(original source was a den leader) referring to "Webelos and Loyals" working on their activity badges. So, from this, I gather that the term "loyals" is being used to differentiate between Webelos I and II, but I'm not sure which is supposed to be which. Not that it matters, since they were working on the same badges. I know that officially a Webelos scout is a Webelos scout and that common usage refers to I & II, to distinguish between 4th graders and 5th graders. But I saw this and wondered if maybe this leader was coming from some other region of the country where they use a different term, I thought it was kind of strange that I'd never heard it before online or anywhere else.

[eagle-pete]

Nope. Never heard of it, never used it.

 

It may be some reference to the L in WEBELOS, which stands for Loyal. The WEBELOS acronym is for Webelos both I and II. I know of no other distiction between the two.

 

Just as a side note. Webelos is always used with the S on the end, whether you are talking about all Webelos scouts, one Webelos scout, or the Webelos den. Webelos is not plural. Just a trivial pet peeve of mine. Your usage, Scouting Mom, is correct.

 

Eagle Pete(This message has been edited by eagle-pete)

[Lisabob]

I've never heard it either - wonder if maybe the person using it had heard something somewhere about the old "lions" program (which I believe used to follow webelos?) and mistook it? Otherwise it must be a regional or in-group thing. It isn't promoted by the official BSA, that's for sure.

[Beavah]

Yah, Lions was what it was back in the dark ages, eh? The progression was

 

Wolf

e

Bear

e

Lion

o

Scout

 

After they did away with Lion, when asked what a Webelos was, yeh often heard

 

We 'll

Be

Lo yal

S couts

 

That's the only place I've heard "Loyal" is in the acronym. Some of the historians will probably have more to add.