One Scout Leader to Another:

Letterboxing is a GREAT way to teach outdoor skills to
scouts, both boys and girls. Just remember, you are
potentially placing someone else's labor of love and
care in harm's way when you take kiddos out to hunt
boxes. Most of them will be fine letterboxers,
(although a number of them won't get into it too
much), but a certain percentage will mean well but be
careless anyway, and a very small percentage don't
mean well and are usually also sneaky! Letterboxing
and Scouts make a great combination, but be mindful
that you are a responsible leader when you take them
out and only introduce them to bona fide boxes when
you are sure they understand fully what they are
doing, so that the reputation of scouts is such that
letterboxing continues to welcome them into the fold.

Our den of boys (now 8 years old) got a taste of
letterboxing last year at a campout, when my 16 year
old daughter and I placed some temporary boxes and
gave them clues and sent them out in pairs with an
adult. We started training them from the very
beginning to be considerate letterboxers and
naturalists, beginning the first steps of Leave No
Trace. Since then, I've planted a box on every
excursion we've taken as a den, and they help me find
hiding places and figure out directions. Even still,
I know I am only exposing my own boxes to potential
problems caused by their carelessness.

A couple of weeks ago, our whole pack went camping and
I was sitting at a table Saturday afternoon preparing
a box to plant. I wound up with about 15 boys ranging
from 7-12 interested in what I was doing. I let them
look at and try out my little collection of stamps
that seems to stay in the bottom of my carving box,
then I let them peruse my log book. They were
especially fond of BabyBear's images. They wanted to
know all about him and his boxes. They wanted me to
tell them where his boxes are, but I told them I
couldn't tell them until I felt they were ready to
know - talk about enciting curiosity!!! I promised
them that after we had really worked on being
responsible scouts AND letterboxers, I would take them
to find one of his boxes. I emphasized that it would
only be WITH his permission and they would really have
to demonstrate to me that they can properly
demonstrate Leave No Trace and general thoughtfulness
as defined in letterboxing. (There are a couple of
boys I won't even consider taking with me on that
sojourn.)

If you look in the archives of this list, you'll find
two or three threads (at least) revolving around
letterboxing with scouts. They are all very
interesting, and you'll find there are several of us
on the list that combine the two pasttimes. It is
definitely worth your time to hunt those threads down
and read them! One of them was right about a year
ago, maybe 13 months or so...

Have fun!

BarefootLucy
(Assistant Cubmaster, Pack 403
RoundTable Commissioner, 3 Rivers District
and Letterboxer)





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