Oak Mountain High School Merit Badge Day

 

Posted By: Sam Dirr

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Merit Badge Day

 

Posted By: Sam Dirr

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Auburn Merit Badge University Campout

Scouts at Toomer's Oaks - Click Pic For More Pics

Post below written by 12 year-old Troop Scribe.

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Friday night we all met at Arby’s for a good meal then we headed down to Auburn. We arrived at Auburn about 9:30 and unpacked and set up camp in the Troop 218 hut. After getting ready for bed we decided that we were not very tired and had some game time.

Saturday morning we packed up to leave, and then headed for a well balanced meal at McDonald’s while it was raining cats and dogs.  Then we headed to Auburn University for the Merit Badge University.  While at MBU we went through our different merit badge classes and had some great Hamburgers and Hot Dogs and all the fixins for lunch.  After lunch we finished up with our classes and then met at the parking garage to head off to Camp Tranquility at Oak Mountain State Park. We arrived at Camp Tranquility at 8:45, when we got to the cabins we set up camp and then the new recruits worked on the Tenderfoot rank advancements.

Sunday morning we awoke and headed for the wonderful food of McDonalds again, we then headed back to camp and work on some more rank advancements and our Firemen Chit.  After all of that fun we decided to go on a hike through the rough terrain of Oak Mountain.  After getting back from the hike and after all of the fun that we had we decided t have a PLC meeting and then packed up and headed for home to see our parents who we missed so much.

We would like to thank Mr. Mitchel, Mr. Greg, and Mr. Rodney for the fun times we had and for allowing us to aggravate them for the whole weekend.  We had a great time.

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Outdoor Merit Badge Day

Scouts Being Garbage Can Knights - Click pic for more pics

Outdoor Merit Badge Day was a fun Boy Scout event out at Oak Mountain State Park.  The Shelby District has always put on a yearly Merit Badge day that consisted of Merit Badge work that could be completed inside a building.  This year was their first year to hold an outdoor merit badge day where all the work was done outside.   I assisted with the Hiking Merit Badge so that is where most of the pictures are from.  However there were about 12 other Merit Badges offered at this event.  There were Scouts all over the woods doing fun stuff.

We started out by going over the basics of the Hiking Merit Badge at a picnic table out in the edge of the woods.  It was a very nice setting and we were able to go over the necessary stuff before hitting the trail for a 10 mile hike.  We tried to keep it real and lively and keep them moving around and helping out.  They seemed to enjoy what they were learning and were involved in the discussions.  They seemed to be having some problems with the maps because they couldn’t find any buttons on them like they have on all their video games.

We completed up all of the necessary paper work before lunch.  At lunch there was a truck load of pizzas brought in.  Unfortunately I still don’t think that was enough.  The Scouts pretty soon scarfed all of that down and was looking around for desert.  It is amazing how much food active boys can put down.  We took our crew after lunch and headed off into the deeper recesses of the park to attempt to complete a 10 mile hike before their parents came to pick them up that evening.  It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

The Scouts decided they wanted to hike up the mountain and down to Peavine Falls.  That sounded like a fine idea.  However once we got there they were exhausted from the hike up the side of the mountain and then all they wanted to do was play in the water at the falls.  The fact that there was a whole slew of teenage girls there didn’t help matters any.  We finally got them started back on the hike again but we quickly saw that we were going to run out of time and distance before the parents got back.  Sure enough two of the Scouts said they have to leave on time and couldn’t stay to finish up the 10 miles so we headed back to the parking lot.  We had covered 8 and a 1/2 miles by the time we got back to the parking lot about 15 minutes late.

Three of the boys jumped in their parents cars and left.  The rest though stayed behind to knock out the remaining mile and a half so the hike wouldn’t be a total bust.  We chose to stay on flat level ground this time and went around the family bike trail a couple of times to knock out the last mileage.  I was wore out after that.  I can see why the merit badge book recommends a training regime to get in shape before attempting your first 10 mile hike.  I guess the BSA really knows what it is talking about, huh?

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Merit Badge Day

Camp Tranquility Map - Click pic for more pics

It was a cold day in January but that didn’ t keep Boy Scouts from bundling up and heading off to Merit Badge Day for a Saturday.   Troop 220 had 9 Scouts who decided it was time to crank up the Merit Badge count and get busy with earning rank advancements.  So they showed up with books in hand and began the task of knocking out 1 or 2 merit badges.  Some were able to complete two merit badges during the day but others had merit badges that were more complicated and took all day to complete.  However at the end of the day it was all good because they learned a new game and got to play with other Scouts they had not met before.  Not to mention that several of them will now be awarded a merit badge patch at the next Troop meeting.

Above is a picture of a very nice map of Camp Tranquility at Oak Mountain State Park.  Larry Faulkner was selling some extra patches during the event to raise funds for the Muscogee Chapter of the Coosa Lodge of the Order of the Arrow.  I was wondering how much money it would take to get the map.  🙂

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