Camp Easton Merit Badge College

Article Submitted by Seth F.

3/11/11-3/13/11

          The spin-off of the Merit Badge University, the Merit Badge College allows you to work on even more merit badges! About 30 boys arrived with 8 adults to add to the total. Friday afternoon, the first thing we did was get our gear out of our vehicles and set up camp. But the great thing about MBC was there were no tents to pitch. We just had to roll out our bed rolls in the Camp Easton dining hall! After about an hour of playing, we played a game called All Aboard. Everyone in the patrol had to step on a piece of 1 foot square cardboard. The Flaming Arrows ended up winning.

          Later in the evening, we made FPG-9 paper airplanes. This was a lot of fun, almost all the boys were involved and enjoyed building and flying their planes around. Some ended up in the fire which gave old meaning to the phrase "Crash and Burn". Later everyone lined up with their planes and had a contest to see whose plane would fly the farthest. Kyler came in first with Finn and Chad tying for second place.

          When we started getting ready for bed, smoke started bellowing throughout the room from the fireplace, which triggered the fire alarm. This happened 8 times total starting Friday night. Saturday morning, we woke up and had breakfast. Oh, the other great thing about MBC is the boys don't have to do any cooking, WHOOO HOOO!

          After breakfast, all the new scouts worked on their Totin' Chip and fire building which was taught by Mr. Bidwell. Meanwhile, the rest of the scouts were working on the First Aid merit badge taught by Mr. Whitt, or the Engineering merit badge taught by Mr. Hall. Before lunch, which by the way was cooked by the adults, we played First Aid Jeopardy.

          After lunch, another Engineering merit badge session was held as CPR training by Mr. Hackney, and service projects. The 5 Mile Hike was canceled and patrol skits were practiced instead. We had free time while dinner was being prepared BY THE ADULTS! After dinner, Mr. Whitt gave "The Art of Storytelling and How to Perform a Skit Clinic" which was very interesting. At about 7:00, we had a campfire and a lot of great skits. Mr. Whitt gave the 101 uses for the Sierra cup and we also came up with 30 more uses for it. Since this is Troop 201, we are trying to come up with 201 uses. Then we had free time and Capture the Flag while brownies were being cooked, BY THE ADULTS!

          After brownies, we settled into bed AGAIN, only to be smoked out by the fire AGAIN! In the morning we woke up to milk and doughnuts brought to us by Mr. Horrocks. After doughnuts, we packed up our gear and Mr. Whitt gave a Sunday morning devotional with Mr. Clemans.

           We arrived back at the Scout Shack between 10:00 and 11:00. What a great time had!