BSA Insurance

The safety of our youth, volunteers, staff, and employees is the most important part of the Scouting experience and continues to be our number one priority. For the past several years, insurance costs have been subsidized in the general operating budget at one dollar ($1) per registered member and leader (approximately $14,000) versus annual insurance costs in excess of $150,000 dollars. Just as you may have experienced with your own health, auto and property insurance, our insurance costs continue to rise.

Lake Erie Council continues to seek and bid for the best insurance rates; however, Scouting has seen increased costs to protect our most valuable assets, our Scouts! Because of this, the Lake Erie Council can no longer continue to subsidize these costs and remain fiscally strong and relevant. In the 2019-2020 chartering cycle, insurance premiums will be one dollar ($1) per month per registered Scouter to equal an annual fee of $12.

Cub Scout Fall Events

Cub Scouts! Kick-off your fall Scouting season right with an overnighter at Firelands Scout Reservation! Cub Scouts can attend camp with their parents and siblings, or with their Pack! Bring your tent–we're sleeping under the stars!

Webelos! Are you looking for an exciting weekend out at camp? Join the Lake Erie Council for Webelos Woods! Your Scouts can attend this event on November 2-3, 2019 at Firelands Scout Reservation.

Visit our Council calendar for more information!

2019 Great Scout Luncheon

The 2019 Great Scout Luncheon is a unique opportunity to share and celebrate the Scouting story with business leaders, alumni and friends. This is also a special occasion to honor an individual in our Scouting community for being an example to others. The goal is to raise over $400,000 from the local community to continue our efforts in forming the next generation of community leaders.

Ken Schmidt is one of the business world’s most outspoken and provocative thought leaders on topics such as competitiveness, marketplace advocacy and loyalty. His philosophy on driving business growth -- by leveraging basic drivers of human behavior -- will change the way you see the world. It might even make you want to buy a motorcycle.

Ken’s best known for his work with Harley-Davidson, the legendary American motorcycle manufacturer. As its former director of communications, he shaped the company’s competitive positioning and served as its primary spokesperson to the media and financial communities in the 1980s through the mid ‘90s. His success in helping rebuild the company’s brand played a vital role in its against-all-odds turnaround from the brink of ruin to global dominance.

Since that time, he’s been a highly demanded consultant who works with leaders of many of the world’s best-known businesses -- as well as smaller businesses looking to improve their competitiveness. 

In late 2018, he released a best-selling book called, “Make Some Noise, The Unconventional Road to Dominance,” which businesses of any size can harness to become market dominators. He also co-wrote a book, “100 Years of Harley-Davidson,” which is the best-selling motorsports book of all time. He has appeared on network television numerous times and has spoken to more than one thousand audiences around the world. Ken is an strong supporter of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a Life Scout and former assistant Scoutmaster.

Contact Pete Biltz (Pete.Biltz@scouting.org) at 216-458-8934 or Jason Setser (Jason.Setser@scouting.org) at 216-458-8923 with questions.

Scouts BSA Fall Camporees

Join us for the Top Shot Camporee to see if you have the best shot for the Weekend of September 13-15, 2019 at Beaumont Scout Reservation. Scouts can come out and enjoy everything shooting sports. Plus the zip line will be open!

If that doesn’t fit your schedule, join the Lake Erie Council to celebrate Camp Stigwandish for its 90th Camping Season. Join us September 20-22, 2019 for our Fall Camporee. Events include canoe races, fishing, shooting sports, metalworking and more. Reserve your campsite now by contacting Anthony at the email below.

And wait we still have one more fall camporee for our Scout to attend this fall and that’s the Firelands 24! Join us October 4-6, 2019 out at Firelands Scout Reservation for 24 hours straight of program.

Visit our calendar to sign up!

Council Impact Meeting

Join the Lake Erie Council and continue the conversation for our next council impact meeting: All are invited on August 24, 2019 to Harding Middle School in Lakewood (16601 Madison Ave, Lakewood, OH 44107). The meeting will take place from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. Register today and we hope to see you there.

These meetings include a continental breakfast — pastries, danishes, donuts, fruit, coffee, water and juice.

Cub Haunted 2019

There's nothing more beautiful then camping in the fall, and nothing more fun and spooktastic than Lake Erie Council’s Cub Haunted.  Enjoy a haunted fort, haunted hayride, cider making, pumpkin carving, and much more. Come for just the day or camp all weekend! Cub Haunted is open to both individual families and Cub Packs.

Multiple weekends are available in October including 11-13, 18-20, and 25-27. Food will be provided, and each youth will receive a t-shirt and patch. Both troop lodges and tent sites are available for more information or to register, click here.

Community Service Opportunity

The Lupus Foundation of America, Greater Ohio Chapter is in need of  50-75 volunteers to help direct the walkers on September 7th during their Cleveland 'Walk to End Lupus Now'. The time would be from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. located in the Flats of downtown Cleveland. Scouts/volunteers would help hold signs directing walkers along the route.

Please contact Victoria Hornikel, at  440-717-0183 if you are interested in volunteering.

Mobile Rock Wall Trainings

Leaders, did you know you could become trained to use our Lake Erie Council mobile climbing walls?

We have multiple trainings coming up this fall. Visit our facilitator training schedule at https://scoutingevent.com/440-MobileClimbingTraining.

Once you get trained, you can rent out the walls for recruitment and unit activities without the need to book an instructor.

Congratulations Lake Erie Council Explorers

On Saturday, June 22, Lake Erie Council hosted the first annual Safety Services Competition at Tri-C West in Parma.

We had 14 different posts represented and over 100 youth and adult volunteers.

The Explorers participated in several challenging scenarios from door entry to search and seizure to crisis intervention. Some of the exploring alumni came back to assist.  Medals and ribbons were handed out for the top teams as well as the fastest time on the obstacle course.  Plans have already been in the works for next year’s event.

Student with autism inspires with Eagle Scout achievement

Timmy Hargate was diagnosed at an early age with autism and an extreme speech delay.

Thanks to years of hard work and the help of dedicated professionals, he is now an Eagle Scout.

At age 7, Timmy enrolled at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Lerner School for Autism. The school uses treatment based on applied behavioral analysis in an educational setting to serve students from the age of earliest diagnosis through 21.

He gradually learned how to communicate with a speech-generating device that allows him to type in words or pre-programmed responses on an iPad.

Timmy’s father, Ed, says Timmy is “very smart and he understands what people are saying to him. He’s just not able to verbally communicate very well without a speech-generating device.”

At age 11, he joined Troop 461. Over the years, he moved up the ranks, culminating with the completion of his Eagle Scout service project earlier this year.

Timmy is 20 and earned the highest rank in Scouting through the BSA’s rules concerning advancement for members with special needs.

“The school and Scouts are his two principal activities, and they keep him busy,” says Ed. “Lerner School has really helped him learn how to communicate with his peers and adults, and being in Troop 461 has done a lot for his socialization skills.”

Timmy’s project

The project Timmy chose was certainly not an easy one. He planned, organized and managed the annual summer field day event for the students at the Lerner School.

Timmy worked with his teachers over a period of several weeks to select activities and games that would be appropriate for his fellow students. He recruited fellow Scouts to be responsible for each activity. He marketed the event by creating posters, supervised the setup process on the day of the event, oversaw the management of all activities on the big day and supervised tear-down when it was over.

In short, it was everything you would expect of an Eagle Scout service project.

“I am so proud of Timmy and happy to be a part of his accomplishments,” says Phoebe Mason, a speech language pathologist at the Lerner School. “He’s made so much progress over the years, and has become a real leader at the school and in Scouting.”