Adding Pizzazz With Ceremony Props

Hello fellow Scouters,

Nothing sucks the life out of a pack meeting like a dry, boring ceremony. I’ve seen ceremonies that were so boring that they put a halt to a pack meeting – they can be like putting a car in Park when you are still driving. On the other hand, fun, exciting ceremonies add life to the meeting, and help keep the fun rolling. The recent Pow Wow training we had here in San Diego was all about adding pizzazz to your meetings. And one way to add a little pizzazz to your ceremonies is by making props that go along with the ceremony.

Recently, my son earned his second religious emblem for our faith. Since he’s already received his purple knot, he was eligible to receive a “device”, which is a small pin that goes in the knot. Now, we could have just brought him up to the stage and handed it to him. But that would be boring. We could have handed it to him and read from a ceremony found on-line or in a ceremony book. Better, but still lacking. So I thought it would be fun to make a large purple knot to go with the ceremony.

It was easy to make. I had plenty of craft wood left over from projects. So I found the ratio of a knot and cut the wood to fit this (the wood’s dimensions are 11.5″w x 7.0″h). I covered this in some purple fabric from the fabric store. Since I was out of spray adhesive, I took white glue and spread it out with a foam brush, so that the wood surface was evenly coated.

To make the knot, I bought some white nylon braided rope from the home improvement store. I laid it out on my board to see what length I needed for each section (about 18″) and cut it and burned the edges. I laid the knot out as it looks on the patch, and I then used a hot glue gun to glue the knot together, so it would hold its shape. I had some shiny silver spray paint left over from my son’s pinewood derby car last year, so I spray painted both sides in a water bottle cardboard base, as I’ve blogged about previously . Once dry I glued the knot onto the board with a hot glue gun to create the large purple knot.

As a side note, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as I made this. As I noted before with my giant Webelos Color, you can take anything down to your local copy center and blow it up on a color copy machine. This can be glued to a cardboard back for a quick and easy prop.

If handled correctly, the ceremony probably would have been fine without this. But when planning pack ceremonies, we should always be thinking of ways to make it fun. Handing awards out in a baggie, or just reading from a script is never fun for an 8 year old to sit through (or even a den leader like me). Instead, I’d rather look for ways to add pizzazz to the ceremony. One fun way to do this is to make a large prop of the award you are handing out.

Good luck to you, and may your meetings be filled with pizzazz!

In Scouting,

-Scouter Jeff <><

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