Our boys’ Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet was Saturday night, and I was kind of looking forward to it. It would’ve been the last event for them as Cub Scouts, ending six years with the (mostly) same group of boys. We had decided a few weeks ago not to move on to Boy Scouts. We went back and forth with it, as it is a great program for boys, but finally decided not to participate. I thought the Blue and Gold Banquet was going to be a fitting ending celebration for their hard work, where they would get their Webelos Badge and Arrow of Light and triumphantly close out this segment of their life.
Things sometimes just do not turn out like you want them to.
The dinner was first and then the awards ceremony started. The Arrow of Light Ceremony (which is almost like the highpoint of Cub Scouts) was the first thing up and this is what my boys have been waiting for. They had worked to complete all the requirements, learning Boy Scout stuff, visiting and camping with a Boy Scout troop, and done all the other things they needed. One boy was called up, then the next and then a third. And then it started, without my guys. They just looked at me across the table like, what is happening, Dad? Why aren’t we up there? There was such a hurt look in their eyes. It was awful. I kept thinking, did I not fill something out that I was supposed to? Did we miss a requirement?
Then they did awards for those earning badges and after Bobcat, Bear, Wolf and other awards were given out, someone said something about how Webelos badges had already been given out. And I thought, really? My boys haven’t received their Webelos badges. All I could think about was maybe they had been given out at a Pack meeting in January while we were on vacation, and then we just hadn’t gotten them yet.
There was finally a Bridging Over ceremony for those Webelos moving on to Boy Scouts, which were all the Webelos in attendance that night except for my guys. It was a wonderful time for those boys moving to Boy Scouts and I was very excited for those guys, but I had not realized before just how uncomfortable this night is to any boy who successfully made it through Cub Scouts, but decided to not move on. To me, it was almost like a feeling of being ignored because you did not choose to go that route. One thing I did appreciate was that their Den Leader, after the Bridging Over was completed, had Nicholas and Patrick stand as well and said that even though this was not part of the ceremony, he was thankful for the years he worked with all the boys.
So, what should have been a grand celebration of a successful Cub Scout journey was a disappointment. It was like going to your graduation with high expectations, and then your name not even being called out.
When we went home that night, I immediately checked the scouting system where we record accomplishments and sure enough, even though I had thought before that I had filled everything in for the Arrow of Light, several requirements were blank. My fault. Again, big loser dad label applied. I would have done anything to have gone back in time and double checked that system again, or even have decided not to have attended the banquet at all, and ended Cub Scouts with good memories. My “I’m sorry” to them just didn’t seem to cut it.
So, the boys’ Cub Scout careers ended not with a bang, but with an awkward whimper. I need to track down their Webelos badges and then work out my own Arrow of Light Ceremony, which will probably be figuring out how to get the Arrow of Lights and just handing it over to them with a “congratulations” (I filled in the blanks in that scout tracking system so it should now be "official".) Anything to do a little salvage on the evening.
So, sometimes we dads just screw it up, and then we hope we don’t do it so magnificently the next time.
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