Merit Badge College March 19-21 2010

Article submitted by Zach Bailey

We all met up at the scout shack Friday afternoon, packed our bags in the cars, and drove to Camp Easton. We all got there and picked our spots to sleep for the night. After that we had our sack dinner and goofed off for a while. Then anyone doing the Space Exploration Merit Badge got a chance to build their rockets.

When we all woke up in the morning, we had our famous troop “Mountain Man Breakfast.” We then began working on our merit badges. Our first activity was the First Aid Merit Badge. We learned things from how to treat a mosquito bite to a broken leg. We also went through a CPR training course. While that was going on, the rest of the troop helped to rake and burn pine needles on the flag grounds. We spent about 2 hours doing this service project.

After that, the younger scouts went on a 5 mile hike around Camp Easton and identified 10 different plants. When they were done with that, we all went back inside the mess hall and had lunch. We had sloppy joe’s and potato chips.

When we were done eating, the people working on the Space Exploration Merit Badge got another chance to work on building their rockets. During this time the other scouts had free time to work on merit badges or play around.

Later that day we had beans, tortillas, and rice for dinner. After dinner, all the patrols got together to practice their skits that they would be performing for the campfire that night. Some of the skits and songs performed were: The Quick Draw Machine, The Last Cherry Coke, and Alex the Camel. Another thing that we do during the campfire each year is to work on Mr. Whitt’s list of 101 ways to use a sierra cup. After about 4 years we finally came up with the last use on his list. This use was to use it to hit the scoutmaster on the head when he goes too far making this list. We didn’t actually test the use out, though.

When the campfire was over, we got to play our annual capture the flag game. There were 2 teams. Team 2 won the most out of all the games we played. After that we all went to bed.

In the morning we packed up our things, loaded them in the cars, and had breakfast, which was ham and cream cheese on bagels. We then helped clean up the mess hall and the bathrooms, and had a small Sunday service before it was time to go.

The campout was a lot of fun, and one we look forward to each year as a troop.

--Zach--