Cub Scouts in Issaquah
Pack 426 is a volunteer, parent-run Cub Scout pack serving grades K–5 in the Issaquah School District. Being a Cub Scout is all about learning by doing, building foundational character, serving our community, and having fun through hands-on adventure. Designed for youth in kindergarten through 5th grade (roughly ages 5 to 10), Cub Scouting introduces kids to the core values of citizenship, outdoor appreciation, and personal growth in a supportive, family-centered environment.
Who
Grades K–5, boys and girls. Most of our families come from Issaquah Valley, Clark, Grand Ridge Elementary, though any family in the district is welcome.
What
Scouts are grouped by grade into a den, which meets on its own. The dens together make up the pack, which gathers once a month for awards, ceremonies and games.
When
Pack meetings are the second Wednesday of each month, at Issaquah Valley Elementary. Dens usually meet weekly during the school year, on a schedule their leader sets.
What Cub Scouting is
While camping, service projects, and the Pinewood Derby get all the attention, Cub Scouting is really about building character. Guided by the values of the Scout Law, our program helps kids embody those traits by rolling up their sleeves and 'learning by doing' right beside their peers and parents.
On the pack-level, it runs on volunteers. There is no paid staff. Every leader is a parent who volunteered, and most of them started out knowing nothing about Scouting. That part is easier than it sounds.
Underneath all of it, the program is trying to do one thing: give kids enough practice at making decent decisions that it turns into a habit. Scouting writes that down as the Scout Law, twelve points scouts learn by heart.
A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
And the Scout Oath, which is the promise a scout makes:
On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
None of it is taught at a desk. A scout learns helpful by helping someone, and brave by doing the thing they were nervous about.
About that line on duty to God. Pack 426 is chartered by the Kiwanis Club of Issaquah, a civic club rather than a church, and we meet in a school. We don't run religious instruction, and we don't ask what your family believes. What that line means is yours to decide. Scouting America is also formally non-partisan, and so is this pack.
All of the above is one pack's account of it. Scouting America runs the program nationally, and its own site scouting.org covers what a pack site should not try to: ranks and adventures in detail, what a scout moves on to after fifth grade, and how the whole organization fits together.
Where to look next
What a year holds
Camping and time outdoors, hands-on building projects, community service, and outings that show scouts something new. The shape holds even as the specifics change.
A pack closer to home
Packs are organized around schools and neighborhoods, so there may well be one nearer you. We'd rather point you there than lose you.
Day to day
Photos, event reminders and short notices go to Facebook. This site covers what stays the same year to year.