About Our Pack

We are Pack 281, in Gold River, CA, just east of Sacramento. Our Pack is chartered through the Gold River Discovery Center (GRDC) elementary school, and we have approximately 40 scouts and their families in our Pack. While many of our scouts attend Gold River Discovery Center, any boy or girl in grades K – 5 is welcome. We have a very active Pack, and pride ourselves on having a program that focuses on fun, respect, and family that influences the growth of the scouts into fine young citizens.

Pack 281 follows a ‘Scout year’ of September to June and upon nearing the end of the school term, all the scouts ‘cross over’ into the next rank. During the summer, Den meeting work on achievements may be suspended as the Pack will meet monthly at fun outings such as a day camp, resident camp, baseball game, Pack barbeque, etc.

In addition to the activities at Den and Pack meetings, Pack 281 will have a family camping trip, Pinewood Derby races, a Blue and Gold celebration, and much more that is just for us in the Pack. There are also District events, which unite us with hundreds of Scouts, and Council events where thousands of Scouts are in attendance. Your participation at these functions will definitely add to your child’s Scouting experience, but are not required. 

 The purposes of Cub Scouting state that Parents, Leaders and Organizations work together to achieve the following:

The Boy Scouts of America is organized into Councils, which are divided into Districts. A chartered organization works with the District to start a Pack. Listed below is information pertaining to our Chartered Organization, District and Council. 

Our Chartered Organization

Gold River Discovery Center

2200 Roaring Camp Drive

Gold River, CA 95670

Phone: (916) 867-2109

http://www.sanjuan.edu/GoldRiver.cfm

Our District

American River District

https://www.gec-bsa.org/american-river-district

Our Council

Golden Empire Council

251 Commerce Circle

Sacramento, CA 95815 

(916) 929-1417 or (800) 427-1417

http://www.gec-bsa.org/

For more information about our Pack, please Contact Us.

A Brief Summary of the Cub Scout Program

The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, and became federally chartered with the United States in 1916. Cub Scouts came into being in 1930. Millions of scouts have worn the uniform, cooked over an open fire at a campsite, earned their Bobcat Badge, raced their Pinewood Derby cars, worked on service projects, and made new friends under the umbrella of Scouting.

Flowing underneath all this fun and excitement is a character-building program that encourages making good ethical choices, family strengthening, physical fitness, and citizenship skills in the lives of our children. 

Scouting utilizes an advancement system that requires scouts to ‘do their best’ to fulfill and complete the requirements outlined in their handbook to earn rank badge. After receiving their badge, these Scouts can go on to earn other awards by completing a series of electives. Please keep in mind that although there are lots of awards and recognitions in Scouting, Pack 281 will strive towards the end that these are earned through significant, meaningful methods that your scout will remember for a long time.

At the Lion, Tiger, Wolf, and Bear ranks, Cub Scouting centers on monthly themes that have lots of appeal to children at this age. During most den meetings, the scouts will be playing games, building craft projects, learning, etc. relating to this theme. In doing so, these scouts will be improving on different skills as they learn to get along with others, become more resourceful, and participate in new activities and venues. At the Webelos level, in lieu of the monthly theme, the scouts are introduced to several diverse Activity Badges and, within the framework of the Webelos den, they work on completing these badges.

If you will notice, there are Webelos I’s (4th graders) and Webelos II’s (5th graders). At the first level, after earning their Webelos badge, Webelos I’s continue to earn additional activity badges and gain new knowledge and skills in these areas. The Webelos II’s, though may still be earning activity badges, will also begin focusing on completing other requirements for their Arrow of Light award and will be conducting activities with various Boy Scout Troops in the area.