Cub Scout Leader Eats His Words

“There’s the pie guy.” That’s what people say about Mark Moyer when he walks into a district meeting. The Cub Scout district, that is.

Mark, who lives in Ijamsville, Md.,is commercial sales director for GOJO Industries of Akron, Ohio. He serves as a volunteer committee chairman for his local Cub Scout pack. Last year, Mark started a new Cub Scouting tradition involving cream pies. More about that later.

Both of Mark’s sons, who are 10 and 8, are in Cub Scouts, a division of the Boy Scouts of America. Cub Scouts, who are between 6 and 11 years old, are assigned to age-specific dens that meet weekly. Mark started out four years ago as a den leader. He remembers his first meeting: “Suddenly, I found myself looking at eight little guys sitting around our kitchen table wondering ‘What do I do now?’ It was terrifying.”

Once a month, all of the area dens gather for a pack meeting. As committee chairperson, Mark works with the whole pack. “The Cubmaster runs the pack meeting,” said Mark. “The committee chairperson is the person who has the oil can and the duct tape to keep everything running smoothly.”

Mark excels at finding talented people to work with the Cubs. When it was time for the boys to learn how to tie knots, a dad who was a sailor led the session. To help the boys in the pack with their “fun in the dirt” learning experience, a paleontologist stepped in from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Mark said the pack was studying minerals, geology and fossils, so the paleontologist took them on a fossil hunt in D.C.

At one point, the paleontologist led the boys about 20 feet up the slopes on the side of a muddy creek, but because of the mud, the boys kept sliding down into the creek bed. “The only way to get the boys up to the fossils was for the parents to form a human ladder,” Mark said.

“So, we stood with our backs against the creek bed, and the boys stood on our shoulders. They found and dug up 65-million-year-old shellfish fossils. By the end of adventure, we were absolutely caked with mud from head to toe. And it was the most fun I ever had.”

Mark’s favorite Cub activity is the annual “Scouting for Food” drive. “Every November, the Scouts, in their Cub Scout uniforms, knock on doors and ask people to donate food for disadvantaged people,” said Mark. “Last year, in our little rural area, our guys collected 33,000 pounds of food. The kids love it. They ask for the food, pick it up, sort it, and then, in a caravan of pickup trucks filled with food, we drive the donations to the food bank and help load the shelves.”

What’s the deal with the cream pies? Every year — as you might know — the Scouts have a popcorn fundraiser. The boys don’t get real excited about selling popcorn to their families and friends, so Mark offered a challenge to the Scouts.

“I suggested that whoever sells $100 worth of popcorn gets to throw a cream pie in a Scout leader’s face,” said Mark.

It worked. Last year, the Cub Scouts sold $3,500 worth of popcorn. Thirty-five cream pies later, Mark Moyer will forever be known as the “pie guy.”

Gretchen Roufs, a 15-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns Auxiliary Marketing Services of San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “freetime,” contact her at (210) 601-4572 or e-mail.