Pack 692 is Williston Vermont's cub scout pack providing boys and girls in grades K through 5 with fun, educational activities that emphasize outdoor adventure and community service.
The program focuses on making things, going places, and learning in a fun way. Scouts have already spent most of their day in school, so Cub Scouting is meant to be "hands on."
The founder of the Boy Scouting movement, Sir Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, was friends with Rudyard Kipling, the British author who wrote the popular JUNGLE BOOK stories about a boy orphaned in the jungle of India and subsequently raised by a wise wolf with help from a loveable bear. Many of the terms and much of the imagery of Cub Scouting was taken from Kipling's stories.
The animals called the orphan boy a "man cub" and from that came the term Cub Scout. The boy's primary care-giver was the wise wolf. A wolf face is the Cub Scout logo and the Cub Scout Sign, two fingers raised into the air, symbolizes wolf ears, a signal for scouts to be attentive and listen to their leader.
A large group of wolves is called a pack, the term used to describe a whole group (unit) of Cub Scouts. A smaller group of wolves is called a den, the term used for the smaller, age/grade specific sub-groups within a Cub Scout pack.
A boy or girl may join Cub Scouting upon entering Kindergarten or reaching age 6. Scouts are grouped into "dens" with other Scouts of the same age or grade. This makes it easier for the adult den leader because everyone in the den will have about the same skill level and work at about the same speed. This would not be true if 4th graders were to be mixed with 2nd graders!
If a Scout joins the program at an older age, he is placed with his age group. Such scouts are not required to "make up" any ranks they may have missed as a result of not beginning as a Kindergartener.
As Scouts progress through the 4~5 years they will typically be in the program, they earn ranks for which they are awarded badges to wear on their scout uniform to signify their achievements. Each rank takes about one year to earn.