Cub Scouts offers a wonderful opportunity for your son or daughter to make friends with both boys and girls from the school and neighborhood. Here’s more information about the different ways Scouting can benefit your child socially.

Scouting provides the kind of positive childhood experiences (PCE’s) that Johns Hopkins University found to be necessary for kids to grow into resilient, mentally healthy adults. Learn more on this page.

Boys and girls in Kindergarten through Grade 5 (and their families) can join Cub Scouts. Most Cub Scout Packs are a mixture of boys and girls, but there are some that may be boy-only or girl-only. When you join online at BeAScout.org, each pack’s listing will indicate its membership.

A pack is the group of families in your community belonging to the same Cub Scout group. This is the group with which you’ll do most, if not all, of your Cub Scout activities. A pack organizes its members into dens, smaller groups by grade level. Another way to think about it: your child goes to an elementary school (pack) but is placed into a teacher’s class (den).

Cub Scouts don’t do any rigorous, outdoor survival-type camping and the camp out doesn’t last longer than a weekend. Other parents in your pack can help teach you the basics. The most important part of our outdoor program is that you’re outside with your child, enjoying a fun experience together.

Research has shown that even a short amount of time in Cub Scouts can benefit children in ways not seen in sports or other programs. This 90-second video is a good summary:

The Cub Scout uniform displays all of your child’s accomplishments in Scouting. But maybe more importantly, it gives them a sense of belonging to a group. You can see all of the Cub Scout uniforms, by grade level, on this page of the Boy Scouts of America website. All of these items may be purchased locally from our Scout Shop, either in person or online (though we’d suggest coming in so our staff can help you with getting the right fit). You can learn more about our Shop on this page.

Let’s break this into two parts: the required cost to join the Boy Scouts of America organization and the possible cost to be a member of your local Cub Scout Pack.

• Everyone who joins Scouting has to pay an annual national membership fee; you’ll pay that every year on the date you joined to renew your membership. There is also a national “new member fee,” but you only pay that once. Here is the latest membership fee amount.
• Each Cub Scout Pack may charge an additional local fee called “pack dues” to help fund their year-round program. The amount can vary from one pack to another. All of this money stays with your pack (unlike the membership fee, which all goes to the national Boy Scouts of America organization) so your pack decides this amount. You’ll need to ask the leader of your pack for the pack dues amount.

There are two additional notes to keep in mind:

• A Scout can pay for his own membership fee and/or pack dues by participating in our annual fall popcorn sale fundraiser.
• Assistance is available to families who need help with membership fees or uniform costs. Learn more on this page.