History

In 1968 Mrs. Helen Santo was looking for activities that son Mark could participate in. Troop 611 had been formed at the San Jose Betsuin with Tosh Tsukamoto and George Hanada as Scoutmasters but there was no group for the younger boys. Mrs. Santo attended a presentation for the Cub Scout group that met at Grant school.  After hearing the presentation, Helen Santo and husband, Earl Santo thought that it would be a good idea to have a Betsuin sponsored Cub Scout group. With the support of Roy Iwamoto, Youth Director for the San Jose Betsuin, Cub Scout Pack 611 was formed in September, 1969.

At the first meeting with the Santa Clara Scout council, Mr. Earl Santo arrived a few minutes after the meeting started. As Mr. Santo entered the room, one of the group said, “Oh, there’s your Cubmaster” and that is how Earl Santo became the first Pack 611 Cubmaster.

Mr. Bob Ellington was the Scout Leader at Grant School and active at the Santa Clara Scout Council. He helped get Pack 611 started. Mr. Ellington is a familiar face at the Pack 611 Blue & Gold Dinners and an active participant at the San Jose Bon Odori.

The first Pack 611 consisted of one den of nine boys. The boys met in the multi-purpose room. The major activities were the Blue & Gold dinner and Pinewood Derby. Back then, Pack 611 borrowed the race track from Backroth School. The Backroth School track was made by Mr. Sakaguchi, who was a carpenter.  The current Pinewood Derby track was made by Jimi Yamaichi.

In the summer, there were monthly activities. Fishing at Coyote Lake (Horio Farms) was an annual event.

One of the memorable Cub Scout Pack 611 field trips was a tour of the USS Enterprise in 1975.  The USS Enterprise was the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The USS Enterprise is 1123 feet long and 257 feet wide and creates quite an impression.

Back then, there was no Pack 611 Obon booth, no Nikkei Matsuri and no Tiger Cubs. Like today, the Moms were usually the Den Leaders during the Cubs first two years and the Dads were the Den Leaders for the last two years of Cub Scouting.

The Cemetery clean-up community service started around 1972.

The rolling of newspapers for the florists was started by Mr. Roy Iwamoto who worked for Northern California fertilizer. Mr. Iwamoto knew the growers and florists and also made the arrangements for the growers to donate flowers for cemetery clean-up.

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