CENTRE HALL — Cub Scout Pack 20 of Centre Hall held its annual Blue and Gold Banquet on Feb. 18 in the Centre Hall Lions Club building. The 50 Scouts and others in attendance honored the pack’s leaders, volunteers and community supporters.
Cubmaster Jesse Weaver presented a brief history of the beginning of the Boy Scouting program, noting that British military officer Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell founded the program in England in 1907. In February 1910, the program came to the United States, and has been known for the last 107 years as the Boy Scouts of America.
Weaver thanked various den leaders and committee members for their work with the Cubs, then introduced guest speaker Tracey Langkilde, biology department head at Penn State University. Her subject was lizards.
Langkilde described research she is conducting on how lizards react to stress, and noted that expectant female lizards treated with a stress hormone tend to have babies of longer length who are more active and more afraid of potential hazards than others of their species.
She noted that the goal of her research was to apply what is learned to humans, and to help mothers have strong, healthy babies.
Langkilde also spoke of lizards’ camouflage markings and how they protect the lizards from predators.
“The reason that lizards are blended in is because most of their predators are visual predators, and they use eyesight to find them,” she said. “Just like hunters wear camos, these lizards wear camos so the visual predators can’t see them.’
She detailed her research on frogs and how they deal with the proximity of humans in their environment, citing reactions to road noise. Tadpoles in urban ponds have, over many generations, adjusted to constant road noise, and those in countryside ponds showed a higher level of stress hormones in their systems.
Langkilde passed around several samples of small lizards and tadpoles for the boys to examine, and she fielded many questions from the audience.
Following the presentation, a craft time was held for the Cubs while adults placed bids on cakes during a silent auction. The cakes — some decorated with camping scenes or made to look like animals — were baked by Cubs and their parents as a fundraiser. Another guest at the banquet was state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, who praised Cub Scouting program leaders and volunteers.
“I wanted to personally come here and say thank you for the work you’re doing for the community,” he said. “You’re giving them a greater investment than what the government is ever going to be able to do. I appreciate what you’re doing.”
