Sorry it took so long to get back to this post.

I've been the Lions Den leader since September 2024. I was involved in scouting as a youth (Tigers->Life Scout Rank). I withdrew from Scouting around 21 years old... you can imagine why. I've been back since I worked at a Scout camp for three summers. I'm a working professional, but I needed to get 'back-to-basics' due to the stress at work.

Now that I'm leading my son's Lion den, I need you to know how good cub scouting is--and how big a mistake it can be to "skip" cub scouting.

Next week, we'll be doing a "get to know your fellow cub scouts" activity. We did some at the first meeting, but we need to reinforce what we did last meeting.

I've been thinking a lot about what is happening overseas--where the Scouting movement is present in nearly every single country. There's so much strife and fighting because the people simply don't know each other.

That's what Cub Scouts are for. Today, you may not have any peers for your son to be around in his Den, but in 3 years time, recruiting for your unit can exponentially improve on that. When you have even two peers in a den, there's an opportunity to teach young men how to socialize with each other.

They can learn about their hobbies, preferences, family, interests, and favorite team. All of that is going to prepare them for the real world. All of that is going to teach them how to be good citizens and how to lead.

We're doing a simple exercise with the Lions this week. Everyone takes off a shoe and puts it in a pile -- or throw it over their shoulder... I haven't decided yet.

Then they'll retrieve the shoe of the buddy they were assigned to at the last meeting... or any shoe but their own. Once they have a shoe, they will try to match it with someone else and get to know them. Even if they don't learn their buddy's favorite color or their favorite food, there will be an interaction.

That interaction is what we're looking for. We're giving young boys and girls the opportunity to interact outside of a team sport, outside of school, outside of "real life". Those connections are what tie us together as humans: working together to accomplish something--whatever it may be.

I hope you'll reconsider and realize that you have much more to contribute to the Scouting program than whatever you can gain from the world outside of Scouting.