Pack 1570 was first chartered to the Clearview Elementary School PTA in February 1981. The pack was always a neighborhood pack. The pack’s scouts were mostly drawn from the Kingston Chase, Hiddenbrook, and Cutter Mill neighborhoods. To place Pack 1570 within the history of the Cub Scouts of America, the pack was first chartered the year before BSA initiated the Tiger program.  In 1982, the ranks were Tiger (2nd grade), Wolf (3rd grade), Bear (4th grade), and Webelos (5th grade).  In 1986, BSA added the Arrow of Light year – then called Second Webelos – expanding the ranks to operate from first grade through fifth.

Pack meetings were filled with lots of fun – songs, skits, games, and the ever-present announcements.  Scouts were excited to be in uniform and excited to advance in rank year to year.  The popular recognitions, beyond rank badges, were sports and academics belt loops, earned by simple participation in various sports and academic pursuits.  Belts would be wrapped all around in belt loops.  The Den Leaders ran very robust den programs, and advancement in rank drew the most attention among the pack’s activities.  Every year, of course, there was Scouting for Food, Pinewood Derby, and the Blue and Gold Banquet.  The Pinewood Derby was on an old wooden track, built by a pack parent long before we arrived.  It was well known the track had bumps in at least one of the lanes.  And there was an annual pack Halloween party, with costumes, Halloween party games, and the Cubmaster wrapped up as a toilet paper mummy.  Beyond day camp – which was immensely popular and served the vast Patawomeck District – the pack would go idle during the summer.  We would soon change that, with weekly summer softball on the field behind the school.  All were welcome, Cub Scouts and their non-scout friends alike, and softball became immensely popular.  Many scouts were recruited to the pack by summer softball.  Another popular event was a summer picnic, held in August, with games that one would see at a country fair – sack race, three-legged race, tire course, etc.

The pack’s year started with a kickoff campfire at Lake Fairfax.  This was not an overnighter, but simply a campfire with marshmallows, songs, and a Cubmaster minute.  The campfire served to welcome new families in an exciting way.  The pack had monthly events, including single-A baseball, Webelos overnight at the MD science center, the joint services air show (or at Pax River), and hiking the Manassas battlefield.  One year the pack rented a bus and we went to Whitetail for a day of skiing, a very exciting event.

Camping was not really a Cub Scouting staple in the 1990s.  Parent-scout overnights (so-called “dad n’ lads) began in the 1990s, but today’s pack overnighters and Baloo training for them did not being until 1999.  BSA created Webelos Woods, so Webelos Scouts could enjoy a district-wide camping event just as their older siblings in the troop did.