MERIT BADGE TECH and BEYOND
Once again, Scouts from the Three Harbors Council (and some surrounding Councils) woke up VERY early on a Saturday morning to go to school! Yes, around 200 Scouts willingly arrived at Gateway Technical College in Kenosha to work on Merit Badges. This is the third year that our Merit Badge Tech has run this partnership program with the College. Their instructors were matched up with Merit Badge Counselors to teach up to 15 different Merit Badges: Architecture, Aviation, Crime Prevention, Dentistry, Drafting, Electronics, Energy, Fingerprinting, Gardening, Home Repairs, Robotics, Soil and Water Conservation, Surveying, Truck Transportation and Welding. Many Scouts headed home with hand-made radios, a set of teeth, tool boxes, and plastic totes filled with dirt, plants and worms!
Each year the program has grown in the number of Merit Badges offered and the number of Scouts participating, plus a long waiting list. The line-up for the curriculum for the next Merit Badge Tech on March 8, 2014 is already in the works! And we are going to expand it to even more Merit Badges! The organizing committee has recently met to discuss the possibility of offering Landscape Architecture, Medicine, Public Speaking, Textile, Graphic Arts, American Cultures, Weather, Public Health, Disabilities Awareness, Fire Safety, American Business, Space Exploration and others. The plan is to offer non-Eagle required Merit Badges which may not be available at camp or Merit Badge Clinics. Also new, are the plans to offer some informational programs for adults, too.
In fact, it is so much fun we have a dedicated group of Merit Badge Counselors who ask to come back each year as volunteers! They are a critical part of the event’s success, but if we are going to expand our program, we need many more Merit Badge Counselors! Most every adult possesses skills which can be applied to be a Merit Badge Counselor. For more information to find out how you can be a part of this remarkable program, consider volunteering and contact: mbtech.threeharbors@gmail.com.
See you bright and early on Saturday, March 8, 2014!
