PLEASANT HILLS
SCOUTS
R
A
ST
at Klondike
Derby
BY DAVID GOLEBIEWSKI
Pack 562 takes first place in
annual winter competition.
E
very winter, Boy Scouts and older
Cub Scouts converge at Camp
Twin Echo in Ligonier for the
Klondike Derby—an all-day event
that combines outdoor competitions
with displays of character encompassed
in the Scouts Oath. Cub Scout Pack 562
from Pleasant Hills recently took part in
the 2018 Klondike Derby and, though
they’d never brag about it—scouts are
courteous, after all—the community
should be plenty proud of what they
accomplished.
The eight-man team from the Cub
Scouts won first place against all other
Webelos patrols, and also took an
award home for the soup cook-off. For
the uninitiated, there are two ranks of
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Webelos patrols: Arrow of Lights (fifth-
grade boys getting ready to cross over to
Boy Scouts) and Webelos, fourth-grade
boys. The Pleasant Hills pack featured
Troy Brown, Leland Ferris, Andrew
Geitner, Christopher Geitner, Jack
Heiser, Logan Hyer, Elliot Stiteler, and
Logan Willis.
During the Klondike Derby, Scout
and Webelos patrols from the Eagle
Valley District compete and collaborate
to solve problems and work out team-
oriented solutions. Throughout the day’s
challenges, patrols use leadership, scout
skills and teamwork to score points. The
Klondike Derby featured 10 different
stations to test participants’ mettle.
Those stations included checking gear
icmags.com
and competing in a sled race, picking
up additional gear and provisions (by
snagging them off tree branches with
a pole, no less), throwing tomahawks,
rescuing gear that fell through thin ice,
walking on ski-like “smoosh boards,”
crossing a gorge, lighting a match with
a hatchet, using flint and steel to spark a
fire, providing first aid and transport to
a (pretend) injured Scout, and testing
knot-tying skills to secure a sled.
“Klondike Derby events all emphasize
teamwork as much as actual skill,” notes
Beth Geitner, the Webelos Den Leader
for Cub Scout Pack 562. “A group of boys
with great individual skills will struggle
if they cannot work together. A team that
can perform all the skills but has a bad