Hello

[Bear456]

Hello all,

 

I am Steve in Hewitt Texas.

 

I am so glad I came across this forum last night.

 

I am a first time Bear Den leader for 9 active, energetic Bear Scouts.

I was very apprehensive taking on the role of the Den Leader last summer, but that apprehension has been unwarranted with the support I've gotten from the parents and having the Den Leader's guide has made my role fun and much easier than I thought.

 

I am glad to find another resource to help and to find out that I am not alone in some of the problems I've read about in the forums.

 

Which leads me to my first question in my one post that I am allowed to make until I'm approved to post more...

 

I am trying to do Grin and Bear It, and am wondering if having a Cake Walk violates the BSA stance on no games of chance for fund raising.

 

 

Grin and Bear It is a Cub Scout carnival and I was thinking about having parents each bring cake/cupcakes and we'd play the game, but we don't intend on charging anything to play the game, so we're not running a fund raiser, but it is still a game of chance.  We run the game for each cake that is brought and whoever wants to play can play, no one is forced to play.  

 

Thanks and I look forward to reading more.

[Stosh]

First of all, welcome to the forum.  Always room for 100 more. 

 

A Cake Walk?  Seriously?  Some scout is going to win the best looking cake and some scout is going to lose and have to settle for the second best cake?  Will that boy's fragile ego be able to survive such trauma at such a tender age?  That borders on child abuse and a flagrant abuse of any and all principles of scouting. 

 

  On a more serious note: have the traditional cake walk, let the boys have fun, make sure the boy and dad make the cakes together, have prizes for the best cakes before the cake walk, (voting done with $'s with the most $ collected wins).  Do the cake walk, then have plenty of milk to wash down the "Participant" trophy cupcakes afterwards!  This sounds like enough fun that even Boy Scouts could do something like this and have maybe a Dutch Oven walk instead....

 

If this is more of a carnival game of chance thingy, don't worry about it, as long as everyone gets something in return, then it 's really not a game of chance where one can actually lose.  So, someone pays $10 for a cupcake.  How is that any different than the person that buys a tin of popcorn for $100?  The boys are there to have fun, let 'em have at it!

[Sentinel947]

Welcome @@Bear456! 

Feel free to go and read(and comment) on anything you feel like. We are OK with old threads being resurrected, just keep in mind that this forum has been around a while, some people who have made posts in some old threads may no longer be active. 

Also keep in mind that we are not an official resource of the Boy Scouts of America. While this is a great place to get opinions and feedback, you should be careful to make sure that what you read here lines up with BSA rules. If you're really stumped, your District Executive or Unit Commissioner should be able to give you the official answer.

With that in mind, I don't see how a Cake Walk is a game of chance. Everybody enters a pastry or cake, every participant finishes with a pastry or cake. Sounds like a gift exchange, only with food.

Yours in Scouting, 
Sentinel947 

[SSScout]

Howdy, Texas.   Up here in Maryland, we are under 3 feet of snow....

 

When you said Grin and Bear it... I must not be up on the new Cub stuff, because I immediately thought of the old comic strip by George Lichty:  "Grin and Bear it"   (Google is your friend)   http://animationresources.org/comics-george-lichty-grin-and-bear-it-orgy-2/  

 

Life in the slow lane, print comics.....

Have fun with your Cubs!    Remember the Cub Mantra:   KiS MiF!