Scouts again, this time GOOD news. ~FieryMomOf2~

I need to explain how this came about, so bear with me. Tuesday was my youngest son Jacob's baseball end-of-year party. One of the moms on the team was a girl I'd grown up with and am very good friends with. She made a comment about needing to go pick her son up from Scout day camp. I pulled her to the side and asked what troop he was in. He's in 311, the troop run by the Mormon church in town (actually they run 2 troops, 311 and 312). I asked her who I'd need to contact about the troop, as I assumed that 314 (our troop) and the Mormon troops were the only ones in town. Turns out it was another old school friend of mine who I've known since his brother and I were in kindergarten together.

So I rang him, and he's already familiar with Ryan, naturally, from us knowing each other through the years, and we chatted a bit about the troop. He said Ryan was welcome to come and visit, but warned me that they do teach a lot of LDS doctrine. In fact, they meet on Monday nights to study doctrine, and Wednesday nights to have regular meetings. I'm Methodist, but I honestly didn't have a problem with Ryan learning about another religion. He further mentioned that the boys in the troop are all very tight-knit since they've been together since Tiger Cubs, and suggested another troop that I didn't even know existed. He gave me the scoutmaster's number, and promised to talk to him yesterday about Ryan and our situation.

So the scoutmaster from 498 called me today. They are indeed a relatively new troop, there's 10 boys in the troop, and they even have a cub scout den as well. They currently meet at his house on Mondays, but they're working like crazy on an old barn to get it refurbished into a scout hut for the boys. They plan all their campouts, work at various events, etc. He further told me that ALL of the boys in his den have either ADD or ADHD, and he doesn't see why Ryan would have any issues fitting in with the boys.

He uses a very calm demeanor, he's really into patience, and he's very excited about Ryan transferring. I did talk to him about Bruce, and mentioned the headache that 314 had given us over his tattoos and over Bruce accompanying Ryan to campouts. His exact words were "Honey, I'm a Baptist preacher but I go to a Methodist church, and I am not offended by tattoos at all." I did tell him that they were not offensive in nature, and he really didn't care. He said "I don't care if he has em all over his body, body art does not offend me." He was really shocked and a little upset by the way 314 has treated us. He in not-so-many words said they were a disgrace to the scouting program.

So we've been invited to the meeting Monday for the scoutmaster to meet us and talk for a bit. It seems like Ryan will fit in with a smaller group. To be honest, most of the folks in 314 are rather uppity and snobbish, and want only perfect, typical, "normal" kids for their troop.

I'll probably let Jacob finish in den 314, then when he crosses over, I'll transfer him to 498. I need to see how big their cub scout den is first. And I'll let it be Jacob's decision whether he wants to follow his brother to 498 or stay with his friends in 314.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, this just may be exactly what Ryan needs! He still wants to be a part of Scouts, he just doesn't want to be in 314 anymore. And I can't blame him one bit. They are the biggest set of judgmental you-know-whats I have ever met in my life, and don't even have the courtesy to return my emails.

And you KNOW I'm going to rub it in 314's face when Ryan makes Eagle scout someday!!! I'm evil that way *winks*

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