Updated 22 September 2026
You have to download the Trail's End app to sell popcorn at all. Every sale is recorded in it — there is no paper order form and no way round it. Set their account up before their first shift, not in the car park. Unit code T7NFT · Council Mid-America · District Black Hawk · Unit Pack 396. Every Scout needs their own account, siblings included — though one email address can cover several. App store, or portal.trails-end.com.
Two dates: unsold product and money are due back 20 October; sales end 27 October.
Storefront shifts book in the app — one hour each, and you're asked to take at least two. A parent stays with the Scout for the whole shift. Cancel as early as you can; inside 24 hours, text Char or Chris directly. Turn up with the app already logged in.
The pack takes no checks. Card, tap-to-pay, QR code or cash. If someone insists on a check it has to be written to you, and you hand the pack the cash.
Goal is $500 per Scout. What they sell lands in their Scout Account and can pay their dues, their camp, or their gear — see what it costs.
October's pack meeting, at the Willowdale gym. Bring a pumpkin, hollowed out but not carved — the carving happens at the meeting, so don't let them do it at home first.
Categories: Best in Show, Cubmaster's Choice, Scout's Choice, Most Scout Theme, Scariest, and Outlaw for siblings.
National moved the deadline, so dues are now due by the November meeting. Money in your Scout's account from popcorn can cover them outright.
Two minutes, and it decides which night the den meets all year. Please check every night that could work, not just your favorite. Fill it in.
The pack's and our den's. Open the for the links and what each one covers.
Parts A and B. You fill it out — no doctor needed. No form, no outings. Get the form.
Our pack requires a parent or guardian to attend with their Scout — every den meeting, every pack meeting, every outing. Plan to stay for the whole thing. If you can't make one, talk to us ahead of time rather than sending them on their own.
Den meeting — just our Scouts, working on an adventure. Aiming for the first or second week of the month, at one of the leaders' homes; the address goes out in the group chat beforehand. Pack meeting — the whole pack together, where awards are handed out in front of everyone. Outings land on weekends and are announced well ahead.
At home — the pieces you do with your Scout, due before that month's den meeting. With one meeting a month, a real share of this rank happens at your kitchen table, and a missed one is the usual reason a Scout reaches May without the rank. Mark each one done yourself in Scoutbook Plus — see checking their progress.
Work through "How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide" with your Scout. It's in the front of the Webelos Handbook. Required for Bobcat — the first award of the year, and the one everything else builds on.
When & where — TBD
Bobcat comes before every other adventure, and most of it needs the whole den in the room: we write our Code of Conduct together, pick the first denner, and learn the Scout Oath and Law and the Cub Scout sign, salute, and handshake.
Finish the child abuse prevention booklet at home before this meeting — it's the one Bobcat requirement we can't do for you.
Adventure — Bobcat
When & where — Friday 30 October, 6:30 pm · Willowdale Elementary gym
Pumpkin carving and the chili cook-off, plus awards. Bring a hollowed-out pumpkin and the whole family.
When & where — Saturday 24 October, Time · Two Rivers State Recreation Area, Waterloo
Every car needs a Nebraska park entry permit — $7 for the day or $35 for the year. Buy it online before you go.
The centerpiece is the two-mile hike — the one outdoor event the rank absolutely requires. The morning is the prep: packing the Six Essentials, reading the forecast, planning the route, and first aid for blisters, sprains, sunburn, and dehydration. Each Scout measures their walking pace and predicts how long two miles will take. Then we walk it, check the predictions, and finish with the trail talk — so the day completes Webelos Walkabout and Math on the Trail.
Bring — a daypack, water, closed-toe shoes, weather-appropriate layers, the Six Essentials
Adventure — Webelos Walkabout · Math on the Trail
An age-appropriate personal safety video we show at the November meeting. You'll get a note; just say yes or no. You're welcome to watch it with the den.
Go room to room with your Scout and find the things that are dangerous — cleaners, chemicals, medications. Check they're stored properly, and read the label together for what to do if someone is accidentally exposed.
When & where — TBD
We'll show the Protect Yourself Rules video for Webelos. Then the Scouts work through a preparedness worksheet on the natural events most likely where we live — tornado and blizzard, mainly.
Adventure — My Safety
When & where — Likely Friday 20 November, 6:30 pm · Willowdale Elementary gym
A week early — the last Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.
The biggest one, and the reason it goes home at the October meeting. Three parts: talk about your family's faith or traditions and name three holidays or celebrations that matter to you, then make something — a craft, a drawing, or a food from one of them. Separately, learn about a faith different from your own and find two things it has in common with yours. They'll share what they made at the December meeting, so bring it or a photo of it.
If your family isn't religious, that's completely fine and this requirement still works — "faith traditions" is meant broadly, and the point is the conversation about what your family holds to be important.
They do something kind for someone, unprompted, and tell you about it. Part of the same packet.
What does it mean to be reverent, and how do they practice it day to day? Again — a conversation, not a worksheet. Also part of the My Family packet.
When & where — TBD · Katie's house
Each Scout shares the craft, artwork, or food they made with their family for the My Family packet. Bring the thing itself, or a photo.
Then a bonus adventure with a real geologist: the three kinds of rock, breaking one open to see inside, and testing minerals for hardness on the Mohs scale. Each Scout starts a crystal to take home and grow. It's an extra pin on top of the rank.
Bring — the My Family packet and what they made · a rock they found themselves, fist-sized or smaller
Adventure — My Family · Earth Rocks bonus
When & where — Likely Friday 11 December, 6:30 pm · Willowdale Elementary gym
Mid-month for the holidays, as in past years.
When & where — TBD
The den runs real votes two different ways and sees how the method changes who wins. Then they build a timeline of one real federal law and how all three branches of government touched it. This is the most thinking-heavy meeting of the year.
The last piece of My Community — talking with someone who's been elected — happens at a pack meeting. The pack hosts an elected official every year.
Goes home — a Pinewood Derby kit and the rules sheet. Build it with your Scout over the next few weeks — that's a requirement, and it's the fun part.
Adventure — My Community · Race Time
When & where — Likely Friday 29 January, 6:30 pm · Willowdale Elementary gym
When & where — TBD
Project and date still to be decided. Likely a food drive, food bank shift, or park cleanup. Required for the rank, and the part Scouts tend to remember longest.
Bring — work gloves if we're outdoors
Adventure — My Community
The kit comes home in January. Building it with an adult is the requirement — not building it for them, which is a temptation every parent in every pack has felt. Let them do the sanding. They race it at the Pinewood Derby in February.
When & where — TBD
Friction, derby rules, and what good sportsmanship looks like when you lose. Anyone whose car isn't finished gets help.
Then a bonus adventure that's more of the same physics: yo-yos. Safety rules, sizing and tying the string, a pendulum experiment, and a go at three tricks — gravity pull, sleeper, and breakaway. Trying them counts; nobody has to land them.
Bring — their derby car, finished or not · a yo-yo if they have one
When & where — Likely a Saturday in early February · TBD
The whole pack races. Running their car here finishes Race Time.
Adventure — Race Time
When & where — Likely Friday 26 February, 6:30 pm · TBD
The pack's biggest night of the year. Dinner, awards, and the 5th graders crossing a bridge into a Scouts BSA troop. Bring the whole family. Next year that's our Scouts on the bridge.
When & where — TBD
A bonus adventure built from LEGO or similar bricks. Each Scout builds something with no instructions, writes step-by-step instructions for it, then swaps with a denmate to see if they can build it from what was written. Then a second, different build from the same pieces.
Bring — a handful of LEGO or similar bricks in a zip bag
At home — watch a short video with them on how something was built from modules. That's the last requirement.
Adventure — Modular Design bonus
When & where — Likely Friday 26 March, 6:30 pm · Willowdale Elementary gym
Something that gets their heart rate up, uses their muscles, and includes some stretching. It can be anything they'll actually do.
Sit down with the Annual Health and Medical Record you already filled out and talk with them about their own health and what they can take part in. Five minutes.
They plan the meal, help cook it, and you eat it together. It genuinely counts as a family activity — this doesn't have to happen at a den meeting. If they haven't done it by April, they can cook over the fire at the May campout instead.
When & where — TBD
This meeting is theirs. Outdoors, each Scout leads the den through a stretch, an exercise, or a game — thirty minutes of activity together — and one of them leads a short relaxation activity to finish. The leaders just keep time. If April won't cooperate, this moves to May's catch-up meeting.
It's practice for next year: Scouts BSA is youth-led — the Scouts run the meeting and the adults sit at the back. Afterward we'll sit down and talk about how leading felt, what changes when they cross over, and where everyone stands on the at-home requirements.
Bring — one stretch or exercise they want to teach · clothes they can move in, layers for the weather; uniform not required
Adventure — Stronger, Faster, Higher
When & where — Likely Friday 30 April, 6:30 pm · Willowdale Elementary gym
When & where — TBD
Held open on purpose: anything cancelled by weather during the year gets made up here.
Then we celebrate — Webelos rank earned, badges ordered for the last pack meeting. Bring your phone: we'll sign Scouts up for summer day camp in the room. See the summer camp section for why that matters more than it sounds.
When & where — Likely Saturday night at the spring campout
When & where — TBD · Camp Cedars
Overnight, with the pack. Not required for the rank — but it's the weekend the Scouts talk about all year, and cooking over a fire there covers the "plan, cook, and eat a balanced meal" requirement for anyone who hasn't done it at home yet.
We'll also run Webelos Walkabout again — the trail prep and the two-mile hike — so any Scout who missed October's day camp can still finish it.
Bring — tent, sleeping bag, ground pad, the Six Essentials. Ask us if you don't have gear; the pack and other families usually do.
Adventure — Stronger, Faster, Higher · Webelos Walkabout
Six required adventures plus any two electives. Each adventure earns a pin. All eight together earn the Webelos badge, which they'll receive at a pack meeting in front of everyone.
| Adventure | When | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Bobcat | October | Learns the Scout Oath and Law, helps write the den's Code of Conduct, learns the denner role and the Cub Scout sign, salute, and handshake — plus the parent booklet at home. |
| My Safety | November | Personal safety video, household hazards, how we keep our spaces safe, and a preparedness worksheet for local natural events. |
| Webelos Walkabout | October backup: May campout |
Packs the Six Essentials, plans a route, checks the weather, learns trail first aid, and walks two miles. |
| My Community | January | How voting works, talks with someone who got elected, traces a federal law through all three branches, and does a service project. |
| Stronger, Faster, Higher | April | Plans and cooks a balanced meal, does 30 minutes of activity with the den, 15 minutes on their own, 10 minutes of something relaxing, and reviews their medical form with you. |
| My Family | December | Family faith traditions and a craft or food from one; an act of kindness; learns about a different faith; talks about reverence. Almost entirely at home. |
| Math on the Trail elective | October | Measures their own walking pace, predicts how long two miles will take them, then checks it on the real hike. |
| Race Time elective | January–February | Builds a Pinewood Derby car with an adult, learns why friction matters, and races it at the pack derby. |
| Earth Rocks bonus | December | With a geologist: the three kinds of rock, breaking one open, testing mineral hardness, and growing a crystal at home. |
| Yo-yo bonus | February | Alongside derby prep: string, safety, a pendulum experiment, and a go at three tricks. |
| Modular Design bonus | March | Builds from bricks with no instructions, writes instructions, and swaps with a denmate to test them. |
We picked Math on the Trail and Race Time because both ride on things the den was doing anyway — the hike and the derby — so neither adds a weekend to your calendar. The three bonus adventures are extra pins, and they double as a safety net: the rank takes any two electives, so a Scout who misses the hike or the derby can count a bonus instead.
You can see exactly where your Scout stands at any time, and you can log the at-home requirements yourself.
Go to advancements.scouting.org and sign in with your my.scouting account. (If you've used Scoutbook before, the old address now redirects here.) You'll see your Scout's record with every requirement and what's still open.
Please log the home requirements yourself as you finish them. You mark it "Completed" and a leader marks it "Approved." It saves us a lot of chasing — and more usefully, it means you can see the gaps as early as we can, rather than hearing about them in April.
If you can't get in, tell us. Roster and login problems are common and easy for us to fix.
| This year — Webelos, 4th grade | Next year — Arrow of Light, 5th | |
|---|---|---|
| Shirt | Blue Cub Scout shirt | Tan Scouts BSA shirt |
| Pants / shorts | Official blue | Official green |
| Belt | Navy blue web belt | Green web belt |
| Neckerchief | Webelos plaid, with the Webelos logo | Optional |
| Hat | Green with the Webelos plaid front | Optional |
Younger Cub Scouts earn belt loops that slide onto the belt. Webelos earn pins instead — and the pins go on something called the Adventure Colors (older guides say "Webelos colors"), a red, gold, and green ribbon device worn on the right sleeve. Buy it early in the year. Otherwise the pins arrive with nowhere to go and end up in a kitchen drawer.
Badge Magic and iron-on adhesive work fine and save a lot of sewing. Nobody will check your stitching.
Where to buy: the Gottschalk Scout Shop, 12401 West Maple — our Mid-America Council shop. Ask us about the pack's uniform closet first; outgrown uniforms come back every year and they're free.
Roughly $300–400 for a first year, before summer camp.
| Item | Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pack dues | $200/yr | One payment, to the pack. It includes the $85 national registration — the pack registers your Scout for you — plus badges, awards, derby kits, and Blue & Gold. If you already paid Scouting America directly, send the receipt and it counts toward the $200. Military families: the national part is waived. |
| Webelos Handbook | ~$24 | Required. Trades secondhand constantly — ask before you buy new. |
| Uniform | ~$90–150 | Shirt, neckerchief, slide, hat, belt, pants, patches. The pack has a closet of donated uniforms. |
| Scout Life magazine | $15/yr | Optional. |
| Summer day camp | ~$100–250 | Optional but strongly recommended — see below. |
The pack's popcorn sale is what keeps these numbers down. It helps families pay registration each year, and it funds the campouts, Pinewood Derby, Blue & Gold and Raingutter Regatta.
What your Scout sells lands in their own Scout Account. Sales run through the Trail's End app and close on 27 October, with unsold product and money due back on the 20th.
Dues are due by the November pack meeting — National moved the date. Two things make that cheaper than the table suggests: pack campouts are paid for entirely by the pack, and whatever your Scout sells in popcorn goes into their own Scout Account, which can cover their dues outright.
Pack 396 sets its own thresholds on top of whatever lands in your Scout's account:
| Sales | Reward |
|---|---|
| $750 | One pack event free — the Zoo Overnight |
| $1,000 | Both pack events free — Zoo Overnight and the Mahoney sledding day |
| $1,500 | Summer camp registration free |
The council stacks more on top — four UNO hockey tickets at $1,500, a council strip and a T-shirt higher up — and every Scout who sells anything at all gets a district sales patch. Trail's End adds Amazon gift cards.
If that's a problem, say so — quietly, to any one of us.
Archery, BB guns, and slingshots can only happen at council-run camps. A den is not permitted to run a range — that requires a certified range master and an approved range. Same for the swimming and paddling adventures, which need trained aquatics supervision.
So: day camp in June is where your Scout shoots a bow and fires a BB gun. It's usually a week of daytime hours, it's the best value in the entire Scouting calendar, and Scouts come home from it having earned several adventures at once. Camperships — need-based assistance — are available. We'll have the registration link ready in May.
A council weekend at Camp Cedars each fall, aimed squarely at Webelos and Arrow of Light Scouts getting ready to cross into a troop: first aid, knots, fire building, shelter building, and time with older Scouts from several different troops. $45 for your Scout and one adult, meals included.
Don't miss the window. The invitation goes out in July, the $45 price ends 1 September ($50 after), and the weekend is in mid-September — this year's was 18–20 September.
It's the single best look at Scouts BSA your Scout will get before they have to choose a troop.
Your den leaders are Katie, Jeremy, and Travis.
Same-day things — running late, a sick kid — go in the den group chat. For everything else, use the form below or email webelos@willowdalepack396.com. Both reach all three of us.
Pack-wide questions — dues, popcorn, Blue & Gold — go to Cubmaster Ian Yellin at scoutpack396@gmail.com.