Cub Scout Pack

USING ONLY edible materials, members of Cub Scout Pack 618 created sculptures on the theme of space for the group's "Cake Bake" last week at Clemens Crossing Elementary School.In addition to cake, the sculptured materials included graham crackers, cookies, marshmallows, spaghetti, gelatin, icing, peanut butter, ice cream cones and candy.Contest rules state that Scouts should encourage their fathers or other men to help them, but "wherever practical, keep mom out of the kitchen."Said Scout leader Don Stout: "These cakes tend to take on a three-dimensional appearance, and are more works of art than dessert."

ANAHEIM HILLS, Calif. -- At a tender age, fraternal twins William and Michael Randall believed in the tooth fairy, in Santa Claus and even the Easter Bunny -- but not in God.After all, the other characters brought Christmas presents, chocolate eggs and money for teeth. If there was a God, they asked, where were the goodies to prove it?The twins' refusal to recite that part of the Boy Scout oath acknowledging a duty to God, and their subsequent expulsion from their Cub Scout pack, sparked a nationwide controversy in 1991.

These boys from Cub Scout Pack 663 earned badges and other awards.For the Tigers: Chris Biddle, Brandon Boykin, Alexander Fleming, Craig Fox, Michael Gee, Colin Pomerantz and Steven Quinn, one each.For the Wolves: Matthew Samonisky, Joey Tyler and Adam Geineder, four each; Matthew Harrison, Matthew Shanks and Nicholas Pangle, one each.For the Bears: Allen Yackiel, six; Charlie Bridgers, Steven LaAsmar, Chris Mekins and Trey Rankin, two each; Adam Batchelor and Brendon Werner, one each.For Webelos 1: Dougle Quinn, six; Brad Clark, four; Miles Cosner, Benjamin Critzer and Nathaniel Biddle, three each; Kyle Hochreiter, one.Brendon Werner, a Bear, earned his religious knot, which is worn through Cub Scouts, as well as Boy Scouts and as an adult leader.

MEMBERS OF Cub Scout Pack 618's Den 4 endured pouring rain, but won ribbons in two out of three events during the National Pike District's WEBELOS-O-REE last month.More than 400 Scouts from 33 packs in Howard County attended the annual camp-out, which was held at Broad Creek Scout Reservation in Harford County.Den 4 earned a first-place ribbon in the gateway/campsite competition for setting up a campsite and designing an entry and boundary marking.Adding to the challenge was the rain that started falling shortly after the Scouts arrived.

CUB SCOUT Pack 663, sponsored by American Legion Post jTC 276, celebrated the holiday season at its recent pack party. Scouts received a candy cane and a Pinewood Derby car kit. Bradley Clark received his Bear Badge and Chuck Snyder was awarded his Whitling Chip. The pack will hold a Pinewood Derby in January.Information: Linda Fonteneau, (301) 813-3115.Beginning with breakfastThe Knights of Columbus will kick off the 1996 calendar of events with its first breakfast of the year from 8 a.m. to noon Sunday.

MOVE OVER, Richard Petty, the Cub Scouts from Pack 663 are looking to take the checkered flag.The boys gathered late last month to race homemade cars in their annual Pine Wood Derby. Scouts received car kits in a December pack party and worked with their parents to assemble, customize and paint their cars, vying to win awards for fastest car and best design.The winners from each den:* Tigers: Adam Geineder, fastest, and David Andrews, best design.* Wolves: Trey Ranken, fastest, and Adam Batchelor, best design.

THE FIRST large-scale project at the Spring Garden Nature Study Area took root Thursday. For three hours, students from Spring Garden Elementary School, working under the guidance of high school students, planted 185 shrubs and trees.The 175-foot-by-10-foot hillside plot is at the entrance of the five-acre nature area.The school received permission to use five acres of county-owned meadow and woodlands as a wildlife and wildflower classroom.The area sits opposite the school on Boxwood Drive.

ELEVEN MEMBERS of Cub Scout Pack 663 have been awarded the Arrow of Light, the highest award a Cub Scout can earn. The awards were presented to Kellen Alexander, David Campbell, Jeffrey Fonteneau, Brian LaAsmar, Kris Matsch, Tony McAllister, Patrick Mullen, George Norris, James St. Hilaire, Chuck Snyder and Bobby Yeager during a ceremony at American Legion Post 276 on Quarterfield Road. The post sponsors the Cub pack.At the same meeting, Webelo Andrew Dobrzykowski was presented with the Youth Religious Award, which is earned through the coordinated efforts of a religious leader, the Scout and his parents.

MY DAY OF reckoning is here: Today's ''Pinewood Derby'' of Cub Scout Pack 973.Of the various challenges served up by parenting, this one unnerves me greatly.The annual derby is a series of short races along an inclined track between miniature wooden cars, built by scouts and their parents. It is meant to be fun. And no one shames the losers least of all my 8-year-old boy, who was just as happy to zoom his ''blue bomber'' across the checkerboard linoleum of a school cafeteria after his entry lost last year.

The Hampstead Volunteer Fire Company has received a new child's car seat and funds for pediatric life support equipment, thanks to Cub Scout Pack 790.Scouts and leaders from Pack 790 presented a check for $60 and a Gerry Guard Securelock car seat during the monthly fire company meeting Monday night.Just about every Scout in the 75-member pack had participated in earning funds for the gifts to the fire company, which was an addition to the pack's annual community support projects.Each year, Pack 790 sponsors two families in the local community for the Christmas holiday.

Elijah E. Cummings' South Baltimore Cub Scout pack was so poor that members shopped for uniforms at secondhand stores, made their own patches and shared a single manual. And when their den mother needed rope for an activity, she cut pieces of clothesline for the boys to share. Today, youths growing up in similarly rough city neighborhoods think joining the Scouts is too expensive and, even worse, uncool, said Cummings, now a Baltimore-area congressman. A new partnership between the Maryland NAACP and the Baltimore-area council of the Boy Scouts of America hopes to change that perception, encouraging youngsters from some of the city's toughest areas to excel in the Scouts.

A Carroll County bookkeeper accused of embezzling more than $236,000 - including a total of almost $50,000 from a Cub Scout troop and an elementary school PTA - was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to three years in prison, federal officials said. Angela E. Hiltz, 43, used the money to purchase Ravens tickets, pay bills and furnish a home in Little River, S.C., according to court documents. The Mount Airy resident was immediately taken into custody to begin serving the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett.

A Carroll County bookkeeper accused of embezzling more than $185,000 - including a total of $50,000 from a Cub Scout troop and an elementary school PTA - pleaded guilty yesterday to bank fraud, federal officials said. Angela E. Hiltz, 43, bought Ravens tickets, paid bills and furnished a home in Little River, S.C., with the embezzled money, according to court documents. The Mount Airy resident could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release.

Donald Hammond Sparklin Sr., a retired telephone company employee who was active in Scouting, died of cancer April 20 at his Woodlawn home. He was 77. Born in Baltimore and raised on West Lombard Street, he attended city public schools and served in the Army in the 1950s. He began working for Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. in 1956 as a Teletype repairman and installer. Assigned to a unit on Guilford Avenue, he repaired equipment at businesses including the city's newspapers. For many years, he was a Cubmaster, a Scoutmaster and committee chairman for Cub Scout Pack and Boy Scout Troop 756 in Woodlawn.

WILLIAM F, KIRKWOOD, III, 62, Wildwood Drive, Edgewater, died Wednesday at his home. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Mr. Kirkwood was active in scouting, and was active in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts; an interest which he would continue throughout his life. He later served as a paramedic with the fire service, and served in the U.S. Army in Germany, attaining the rank of Spec 4 prior to discharge. He became a very successful agent with Nationwide Insurance in Maryland, and served on the Board of Directors of the Howard County, Maryland Farm Bureau, in addition to which he became the only non-farming President of the Bureau.

Cub Scout Pack 319 in Riderwood will hold a flag retirement ceremony Sunday afternoon, and is inviting the public to bring old or unusable American flags for the dignified destruction called for under federal law. Spectators also are welcome at the 1 p.m. ceremony at Hunt's Memorial United Methodist Church, at West Joppa and Old Court roads. It will feature an American Legion color guard and refreshments. The procedure for flag retirement involves cutting the striped portion into small pieces, while the blue star field remains intact - the stars symbolic of the union of 50 states, which should not be broken.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - The sharp crack of cannon fire silenced the onlookers yesterday morning, the puffs of smoke drifting dirty gray against a sky already overcast. Horses twitched nervously as down the hill muskets puffed noisily. The men in Union blue and Confederate gray lined up against each other on the damp fields, fired and reloaded and strained to hear their commanders' orders above the popping din of the guns. Yet jarring as the thundering cannon were, the blasts were carefully planned and coordinated.

CREATING A HOLIDAY atmosphere not unlike the town in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, Hampstead officials will throw the switch Friday to illuminate the town park and welcome the season. The park in front of the former Hampstead Elementary School has been transformed into a garden of lighted and moving figures, and the town Christmas tree has been placed on Main Street. At 7 p.m. Friday, the flashing lights and screaming sirens of the firetruck from Hampstead Volunteer Fire Department will signal the arrival of Mayor Christopher M. Nevin and Santa Claus, as they are driven down Main Street from the fire station to the park.

COLOR GUARD performances from Cub Scout Pack 718, Taneytown American Legion and Carroll County Sheriff's Department will start the Celebrate Taneytown festivities Saturday morning. The ceremony from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Memorial Park will include reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the national anthem. The 248-year-old town has held its annual festival at the end of August, but moved it to October in hope of cooler weather. More than 50 arts and crafts vendors are expected to set up, said Pam Shorb, festival organizer.

Northeast High School's Dionysus Club will wind down its theater season with a final production of one-act plays at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the Eagles auditorium, 1121 Duvall Highway. The play bill includes four plays directed by drama club members. Two of the plays were written by the directors. The evening will feature: The Hypocritical Oafs, a story about an "operating" room, written and directed by Greg Poling; It's Your Lucky Date, a game show spoof, written and directed by Bryan Dalzell and Dana Lowman; a new take on Shakespeare's famous lovers, Modern Day Juliet & Romeo, directed by Amanda Griffith and Angela King; and a fractured fairy tale, Rapunzel Uncut, directed by Bryan Minnick.