On Saturday, November 7 at Mount Vernon:

FREE ADMISSION for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
Colonial Military Demonstrations.
Join in historic and modern land surveying demonstrations.
Colonial spinning demonstrations.
Hands-on textiles station.
Colonial cooking demonstration.
Parade to Washington's Tomb with special wreath-laying 
led by Continental Soldiers and Fife and Drum Corps 
(9:30 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 3:00 pm).
Bring your unit flag and join the pageantry. 
No reservations required.

Scouting Months at Mount Vernon
November 1, 1998 to February 14, 1999

FREE ADMISSION for all Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Camp 
Fire Club Members in uniform or wearing an official 
membership pin.

Participate in a special wreath-laying ceremony at 
George Washington's Tomb (reservations required).

Walk the Mount Vernon Historic Trail (free booklets).
Try land surveying in the style of George Washington 
(reservations required).

NEW! Give colonial life a try with the Pioneer Farmer 
hands-on activities. For reservations call (703) 799-8604
Admission for Leaders in Uniform: Nov 1 - Feb 14 - $4.00

You can check it out at the Mt Vernon site at
http://www.mountvernon.org.

Most dens in our Pack have a yearly wreath-laying and 
start with the Pioneer Farm for the Tigers and younger 
Scouts and work up to the surveying as Webelos. The 
walk is good for any age, and the older Scouts can 
"help" the younger if you're going as a pack. The 
surveying (I've been told by my Webelos leader) is 
great for badge work but may be difficult for the younger
Scouts.

There are great patches for the historic walk (the 
booklet contains the map, descriptions and an "answer 
these questions" activity - almost scavenger hunt for 
information) and surveying (they have the whole activity 
"mapped out" for you and a kit with the required 
equipment). The Pioneer Farm is new and, I'm told, 
has wonderful hands on stuff - and of course it's own 
patch. There is a surveying pin and a wreath-laying pin. 
All are available at the gift shop. I think these 
programs are available year round, but the
admission is (IMHO) steep.

If you plan on taking the walk and laying a wreath, the 
tomb is about 1/2 way through the walk (the total walk 
took us about 2 hours with Wolves - if you go "in season" 
it would be harder to judge because of the wait to tour
the house varies.)

This information from a posting to Scouts-L courtesy of:

Bernadette Moran-Curry
CC Pack 995, Springfield, VA
Old Dominion District, National Capital Area Council
Bernadettejohn@sprynet.com