Millersburg Pack 357 visit to GPI has area scouts soaring to new heights
By Dave Mast
March 22, 2010
539
Lost scouts, an imaginary plane that can take people throughout the universe and all kinds of scouting skills were on display when the Millersburg Pack 357 troop members visited Graphic Publications, Inc. for an afternoon of learning about what goes on at a newspaper business. Several members of the troop came with scout volunteer Melissa Biltz to fulfill part of the scout troops requirement.
Pack 357 of Millersburg paid a visit to Graphic Publications to gain insight into the inner workings of a newspaper company on Monday, March 15. The scouts took an in-depth look at the GPI Web sites, which are nearly ready for the public to peruse, and created their own front page story. The day was part of participating in a Go See It Activity, in which Cub Scout troops are required to visit a television station, radio station, or newspaper office, and find out how people there communicate with others. Other Go See It events will include trips to a local fire or police station, a hike, and a library or other historical museum in the area.
The first stop was to visit with Paul Money and Jim Marshall, who are currently working hard to prepare the new GPI Web sites. Money took the scouts on a quick tour of the sites, talking about how the company gets its stories and photos from hard copy to online. After exploring the many facets of the Web sites with Money, troop members took a tour of the advertising department, then settled in to the board room, where they got to partake in an impromptu storyboard process, which had them creating and gathering ideas and posting them on a board. There, the scouts put their ideas on sticky notes and arranged them on a board, where they whittled them down to a story line idea.
Its fun for the guys to get to see how a local company puts its product out for people to see like this, said Biltz. Weve got a very active group, and we try to get the scouts involved in a lot of different things.
The scout members eventually settled down in front of the computer to flesh out their story, which is in its entirety below.
Pack 357 has high-flying experience
One sunny summer day at Seven Ranges Scout Reservation in Kensington, the members of Pack 357 Bear Den headed toward a great adventure. After eating a large meal of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, cucumbers, steaks, ham, cotton candy and cheesecake and consuming several Mountain Dews, they settled down to talk about their week ahead. Isaac Miller said, I cant wait to go fishing, but what I would really like to do is build an airplane. All the other scouts thought that was pretty funny. We cant do that, laughed Hunter Plank. We dont have the materials. So the scouts decided they would just have fun doing the things that scouts do at camp. They decided they would play tag, ride dirt bikes, whittle, take a hike, catch frogs, swim, and do arts and crafts.
Even while the scouts were out having a great time, Isaac could not get the idea of building a plane out of his head. They returned from a long hike where they watched birds, caught frogs, saw a snake and avoided a patch of poison ivy. As they helped their leaders build a campfire, Mark heard an owl hoot. While they were on the hike they found some sticks that they brought back to camp and began to whittle their new hiking sticks while Chase wandered off in the woods. They started telling campfire stories and Isaac kept returning to the idea of building a plane. Ben was not listening to the leader and the importance of the buddy system so he went to search for Chase on his own. The leaders were beside themselves because they now had two lost boys in the woods and both boys were more familiar with their video games instead of the hoot owls. Lets get together and talk about how we are going to search for these boys, said their leader. Does anyone have any ideas? Isaac suggested that we build his plane so we can look from the air.
How are we going to build this plane? said Mark. Isaac pulled out his magic pocket knife that will turn into any tool they needed. It was like a Swiss Army knife on steroids. So the boys decided they would go into the woods as buddies and gather some necessary wood and they began their task of building a plane.
In almost no time because of the magic knife, the plane was coming together. The only thing needed was a pilot and fuel. They began digging and out from the ground came a bubbling crude. Oil that is-black gold-Texas Tea. The scouts used a compass to find their way in the woods so Nick decided to touch the magic knife to the compass and an engine was formed to help lead the way. Isaac plans on piloting the plane and all aboard. Isaac said, I wanted to fly a plane ever since I read about the F-22 Raptor, and now is my chance to shine.
The scouts took to the air and after locating both lost boys they wanted to go on a greater adventure. So they loaded up their plane and just like the Magic School Bus, the plane took off to all of their dream destinations. So after flying past Progressive Field and Cedar Point, they headed to Alaska. The trip did not stop there; they continued to accelerate and before long they were flying past the Great Wall of China, onto the Pyramids of Egypt and past the Eiffel Tower. Nathan said, I am hungry, can we go to McDonalds? Their mouths began to water and Nick said I want some of those things that pop in your mouth - Pop Rocks. As he said that, they magically shot past the stars and headed to the moon for some moon rocks and a Big Mac.
The next morning they woke up back at Seven Ranges and were surprised to find the airplane gone. Was it a dream, or did we see the world in scouts last night? said Ben and Chase. But then they wondered where the Big Mac wrappers came from.
