News

The 2018 New Birth of Freedom Council’s University of Scouting will take place on Saturday, November 17  at Trinity High School in Camp Hill.  Registration will open up at 8am and the opening ceremony will begin at 8:45am.  Classes will begin at 9am and run until 4pm.  This year’s event has a lot of great...

One of the characteristics of Scouting—for over a hundred years—is that no matter when you join, however long you stay, or the rank you attain, the Scouting experience prepares you for life. And for some, the pinnacle of their Scouting experience is achieving the highest rank of Eagle Scout. The policies of the BSA indicate...

Dear New Birth of Freedom Volunteer Leaders: Like many other organizations, balancing our Council’s annual operating budget is often a difficult challenge. In fact, in 2017, we had an operating deficit of just over $126,000 – our first deficit year since the Council was formed in 2010. As you might expect, it wasn’t just one...

The Ninth Annual Eagle Scout Recognition Dinner will take place on Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, Pennsylvania.  The event will recognize the 2018 Eagle Scout Class for attaining the highest rank in Scouting, with many prominent business and community leaders in attendance.  Dr. Craig Hillemeier, Dean of...

The New Birth of Freedom Council has been selected as one of the finalists in the Rutter’s Vote With Your Dollars program. Between April 1, 2018 and October 31, 2018 we will be competing to receive a $25,000 donation from Rutter’s to help fund our new 700’ zip-line spanning Memory Lake and a 38’ climbing...

The City of Harrisburg Holiday Parade will be held on Saturday, November 17 and we just received word that the City is interested in having local Scouting units join the parade as participants this year. The parade attracts over 10,000 attendees from Harrisburg and the surrounding communities. It features floats, parade balloons, musical acts, food...

The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday announced a voluntary recall of Cub Scout neckerchief slides sold between February 2018 and August 2018. The affected products include the orange Lion, red Wolf, green Bear and blue Webelos slides. The $6 slides were sold at local Scout Shops, authorized BSA distributors and online at scoutshop.org....

Keeping our youth safe is paramount in the Scouting program.  Youth Protection Training is vital in being able to provide safe, fun, and memorable Scouting experiences.  For anyone that has not yet completed the new Youth Protection Training, your training is set to expire on October 1.  There have been some communications from National to...

The New Birth of Freedom Council will be offering Climbing/COPE  Instructor training courses over two weekends (October 19-21 and November 2-4) at Hidden Valley Scout Reservation for volunteers, particularly for those individuals who have an interest in staffing council-level climbing events.  Class size is limited to 12 participants both weekends. COPE & Climbing Foundations will...

It’s a bit like learning there’s enough Dutch oven peach cobbler for everyone to have seconds. It seems too good to be true, but you will absolutely take it. The BSA announced today that it will make Scoutbook subscriptions free to all BSA units beginning Jan. 1, 2019. Units that already use Scoutbook won’t be...