Continuing in its tradition of educating new geocachers, SLAGA VP How-D, with the help of other SLAGA members, introduced Cub Scout Pack 499 to the activity on Saturday, February 4, 2017.

                In late November, 2016, Den Leader Larry Willick contacted SLAGA to request a class in geocaching for his Cub Scout Pack.  Six scouts and their parents attended the class, held at the Grand Glaize branch of the St. Louis County Library in Manchester, MO.  How-D (Bill Lange) spoke to the students for about an hour, covering the basics while illustrating his commentary with samples of cache containers and trackable items.

                GPS units were distributed to Pack members and parents alike, so that everyone could have a hands-on experience.  After a brief demonstration with the units, Walkingstic-stl (Nancy Gelb) and GeoConformity (Rick Rouse) led the class into the library’s parking lot, where there happened to be a published cache – SLCL: The Hobbit 5 – Riddles in the Dark (GC4KR92) – on site. The Pack followed their GPSes to the cache pretty quickly, where they made the grab and signed in, while checking out the contents of the container.  After replacing the cache for the next seeker to find, How-D used the picking up of the trash in the area to demonstrate the geocaching practice of CITO.  Then the group moved to Queeny Park where they hunted both temporary and permanent caches.  The students were able to not just sign in on the logs, but could trade items from their swag bags as well.  The activity proved to be very popular with the Cub Scouts.

Cub Scout Pack 499 in the field.

                As the class ended, several of the attendees indicated that they would be interested in doing more geocaching in the future.  All were encouraged to check out the SLAGA website for more information and to become involved in geocaching by attending upcoming events.

                Groups interested in learning more or requesting classes should contact SLAGA.  Because training sessions are led by volunteers, it is best to submit inquiries as soon as possible to ensure someone is available during the timeframe requested.