Whittling and water balloons

At Central Park, Cub Scouts learn about navigation, knots, first aid -- and the joys of reveille at sunrise.For 9-year-old Austin Grande, being a Cub Scout means maintaining Scout spirit, always being prepared and slinging water balloons at his mom.

With his mother staring down the crosshairs, Grande and about a dozen other Cubs Scouts from Surf City Pack 290 took aim and fired, never scoring a direct hit, Grande said, but learning about teamwork -- or maybe it was Scout spirit, he said. Whatever it was, he was having fun.

“It looked like she was going to wet her pants,” he joked, setting off a roar of approving laughter among his elementary-school friends.

Pack 290 and dozens of other Cub Scout packs from Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley descended on Huntington Beach’s Central Park over the weekend for the 2005 Pacific District “Camperall,” a three-day event meant to prepare older Cub Scouts, known as Webelos, to become Boy Scouts -- the next step up the organizational ladder.

More importantly, the annual camping event was a chance for boys to be boys and celebrate masculinity. During Saturday’s workshops, the Scouts used games to practice compass navigation, learn basic first aid, tie knots and safely handle campfires.

As they went from one station to the next, the packs often marched in formation, carrying their pack flag and singing pack chants with all the bravado they could muster. Pack 290 wore yellow shirts with a stylish surfboard design and shouted “We will rock you,” while Pack 563 seized on a rhyming opportunity, shouting “victory” every time they said their pack number. The biggest hit was Pack 206, whose shirt included a picture of a skull and crossbones. Most of the scouts agreed -- those guys looked cool.

Organizer Jack Lamey estimated that about 200 Webelos were in attendance, along with 140 adult volunteers and dozens of Boy Scouts who helped run the event. Together, the Scouts and parents transformed a small mesa in Central Park into a Webelos village, with dozens of pup tents, campfires and places to learn about whittling and pocket-knife safety.

Most of the village was set up Friday night, Lamey said, and by dawn the next day, everyone was up by sunrise, awakened by the morning light and the blast of the bugle blowing reveille.

“I’m not sure if every mom and dad enjoyed the experience, but he did get a great applause,” Lamey said.

For others it was more of a shock.

“I’ve never been up that early,” said Pack 290 Scout Hunter Kelley.

There would be plenty of games, presentations and huge campfires, even a game to celebrate the Scout’s ode to preparedness, called FEAR Factor -- an acronym for Face Every Action Ready.

“It’s very much a boy-run activity,” Lamey said. “The adults are just the advisors.”

Senior Patrol Leader Dave Johnson, 15, of Troop 1226, was charged with organizing the event.

“We want the Webelos to have a good time and learn about scouting,” he said. As he spoke, recruiting and troop leaders roamed the park, handing out information about the Boy Scout troops in the area. Some meet at churches and spend their weekends building and launching rockets near Palm Springs; others gather at family homes and plan hiking trips in the San Bernardino mountains.

Besides thinking about the Boy Scouts, the Webelos were competing for prizes. The hot item was the Spirit Award, an oddly shaped pillow that was much more about pride than aesthetics

“This year there’s lots of spirit, tons of spirit, almost too much spirit -- almost,” high-school sophomore Steve Quinn joked, recalling an earlier incident in which he was tackled by some Scouts hoping to get their hands on his spirit coins -- get yourself enough of those babies and you become the spirit champ.

“The Scouts who are running this are doing an awesome job,” said parent and chaperon Anna Johnson. “The kids will be nice and worn out come tonight. I know I already am.”20051027ioxygqknNo Caption20051027ioxyg4knPHOTOS BY MARK DUSTIN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Members of Troop 435 prepare to launch a plastic SpongeBob SquarePants toy from an oversized slingshot during a Cub Scout campout in Central Park. Below, members of Cub Scout Troop 278 practice tying knots.