When one of my best friends told me about the Blue & Gold Boy Scout Banquet she was working on, I knew we had to share it! It’s fun, creative, and simple and the activities could be adapted for all kinds of scouting activities-not just Blue & Gold. And-maybe my favorite part-they kept it to an hour! Everyone goes home happy. I’ll let Brooke give you the inside to scoop to what they did and how…
I was assigned to be the Cub Scout Committee Chair a month before the Blue and Gold Banquet and I was really nervous! I had never been in charge of a large dinner like that, and I wasn’t exactly sure where to start. Luckily, I had a wonderful committee and together we were able to pull together a great Blue and Gold.
We knew that before we did anything else, we needed a theme. We chose “Cub Scouts are One in a Minion!” (A play on the funny characters from the movie “Despicable Me” — and the boys loved it!) We sent out invitations a few weeks before so that families could get it on their calendars. One of the members on the committee made these invitations and they were perfect. (You can download this invitation-minus the date and time-here. Edit it in PicMonkey by adding a text box with your date and time and you’re done!)
We were able to get salad and pork donated to us from a local restaurant. (Check with local restaurants and see what they’re willing to do! The Boy Scout organization is well-known and well-loved.) That took a big load off of the food preparation! We purchased rolls, the leaders brought jello salads and corn and then we did Texas sheet cake and ice cream for dessert. Dinner was very simple, but very good!
We wanted the decorations to be uncomplicated. We did yellow tablecloths with a blue basket as a centerpiece. The blue basket had napkins, forks and knives in it. We tied yellow and blue balloons to the basket and made the balloons look like minions by taping on minion glasses.
We had a balloon arch made by someone in our ward and it looked awesome! Although we kept the decorations simple, the balloon arch made the cultural hall look impressive.
When the families arrived, we had a paper activity on each table (“Who wants to be a minion-aire?”) made up of a little questionnaire with trivia about cub scouts. It was a really casual, fun gathering activity for people. You can find a copy of our questionnaire here.
After our dinner we did some “Minion to Win it” games! We wanted to keep them simple so we did the following:
Face the Cookie
We gave everyone that wanted to participate an Oreo cookie and they had one minute to get the cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands.
Mallow Launch
One person launched a marshmallow using a plate (which was hanging halfway off a table) to their team member, who caught the marshmallow in a cup.
(If you’re interested in adding a few games, check out this post!)
Overall, we felt like it was a great evening. Everything was simple but the Cub Scouts loved it! Not to mention we kept it to an hour.
Can you give me the answers to the Who wants to be a Minion-Aire please? I know most of the answer but there are a couple I am stuck on and can’t find the answers to. Thanks so much!
Hi Vicki! I hadn’t even realized we never posted answers. So sorry! And thanks for letting us know. Here they are:
1. a
2. c
3. c
4. d
5. b
6. c
7. c
8. b
9. c
10. c
Good luck with your banquet! I’m sure it will be fantastic!