Monthly Archives: November 2010

My heart has a special place for Greg Mortenson and his work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His amazing journey from mountaineer to international philanthropist is outlined in the famous, inspiring book Three Cups of Tea.

From the website:

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.

While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time.

If you haven’t read it, you must. It’ll make you want to do something to help.

If your kids haven’t read one of the youth editions, encourage them or make it a family event and read it to them yourself. It’ll make them want to do something to help.

Too often we read about something like this, wish we could help, and then do nothing because we don’t know what to do.

As you may have guessed, I have a suggestion.

The Pennies for Peace campaign is an excellent way for our youth to truly help some of God’s neediest children. It’s a way to raise awareness of the needs of others and encourage gratitude for the blessings we have here. It’s a way to empower kids to understand that they can make a difference in the lives of others. It’s something everyone can get in on, even those who only have pennies to give.

This idea is flexible and can be made to fit the kind of service project you’re looking for. Primary kids working on their Faith in God can run a small and simple campaign. Youth working on Personal Progress, Duty to God or Scouting awards can coordinate a campaign on a much larger scale.

The Pennies to Peace website has tips and everything you need to get started, from printable stickers to decorate your donation jars to letter templates for parents and Girls Education Fact Sheets. And it’s all free.

If your son or daughter decides to do this, please drop me a line and let me know how it went.

LDS and Scouting Service Project Requirements:

PLEASE NOTE: The Pennies for Peace program may NOT be used for the Eagle Scout award because fund-raising projects are not permitted for that award.

Faith in God – Serving Others requirement #7: “Plan and hold a parent-child activity, such as a dinner, picnic, hike, day trip, or service project.”  This idea may also be used for requirement #10: “Children may also plan and complete their own activity to serve others. ”

Personal Progress – Good Works Value requirement #7, which involves giving three hours of service outside your home. Also, this could be used for the Good Works Value Project which requires at least 10 hours of service and can additionally include involving other young women.

All three levels of the new Duty to God program (Deacon, Teacher, Priest) include requirements to plan and carry out service, both individually and with the quorum.

The Star and Life ranks of the Boy Scout program each require service projects totaling at least six hours of work. Again, please note you may NOT use fund-raising service projects for the Eagle Scout Award.

Venturing – Religious Life Bronze Award requirement #3: “Plan and lead a service project such as helping to build a Habitat for Humanity house, participating in a community cleanup project, or taking on a fix-up project for a nursing home or nursery.”

A Pennies for Peace campaign could be used to fulfill the service to others requirement for the Venturing Gold Award.

Speaking of horror stories (see Merit Badge Know How below), here’s another caution for parents. I heard about this from the same friend who works with the BSA to process Eagle Scout Award applications for our stake.

Just as lack of documentation can cause problems when a boy goes to apply for his Eagle Scout Award, another problem is when boys earn all their ranks but forgot about the so-called “joining rank” or rank of Scout. This MUST be the first rank earned. Boys who end up doing the work for Tenderfoot ranks and up without earning the Scout rank first have not earned those ranks as far as the BSA is concerned, even if that boy was given his awards in a Court of Honor, etc.

This error is not usually caught until the BSA Council is reviewing the records for a boy applying for his Eagle Scout Award. Guess what?

He doesn’t get it.

Ideally, leaders should be well informed to prevent this kind of problem. However, there is no better advocate for a scout than his parent. Parents, be aware of these things and stay on top of what’s going on.

If you want to avoid other potential Eagle Scout Award nightmares, see my post Merit Badge Know How.

If you want details on earning the Scout rank, click here.

The 2010 Historic Merit Badges: Signaling, Tracking, Carpentry and Pathfinding

Time is running out to earn the four historic merit badges available in 2010 only, as part of BSA’s 100th Year Celebration. Requirements must be completed no later than December 31, 2010.

I talk a little more about the four merit badges here and you can get a list of the official requirements here.

If you haven’t started on any of these yet, Pathfinding may be your best bet.

Merit Badge Blue Card, front.

Merit Badge Blue Card, back.

For those of you who are new to scouting or who’ve never had this explained to you, here’s a few simple things you need to know about earning Merit Badges.

1. Get a Blue Card!!

If you’re in an LDS troop, there’s a possibility this is not the first step made. There’s even a possibility that this step is NEVER made.  I’m hoping this will be a thing of the past as training of LDS Scout leaders continues to improve.

**Insert Blue Card Horror Story Here**

I had a very interesting conversation with a woman in my ward who has been our Stake’s Eagle Scout coordinator for years. I’m sure her official title is something different, but the point is she is the one who acts as a liaison between boys who are applying for their Eagle Scout Award and the Boy Scout of America Council.

You know, they’re the ones that say YES you’ve earned your Eagle Scout Award or NO you haven’t.

Unfortunately, she has seen cases where boys have done ALL THE WORK to earn their Eagle Scout Award, but because of an error with paperwork and because the boy does not have his blue card to prove he earned certain merit badges, the boy DOES NOT GET HIS EAGLE SCOUT AWARD.

That is a sad, sad situation. She’s seen it happen more often than she’d like.

**End Blue Card Horror Story**

You should be able to obtain a blue card from your son’s scout leader or a member of the Scout Committee. If you run into difficulties or delays, don’t be afraid to be the squeaky wheel. If necessary, go to your local Scout Shop and purchase a pack yourself.

2. Get the blue card signed by your son’s scout leader or assistant scout leader.

There’s a place for this on the front of the card. This should be done before any work on the merit badge begins.

3. Determine who the merit badge counselor is going to be.

Oh yeah, every merit badge earned must be supervised and approved by a merit badge counselor. This may be any scout leader (including the Stake Young Men scout leaders and Ward Bishopric member over scouting), scout committee member, or registered merit badge counselor.

4. Earn the merit badge.

An obvious step, but there you are.

To see a complete list of available Merit Badges and their requirements, visit the America Jane Merit Badge page.

I highly recommend checking out the official merit badge pamphlet for each merit badge earned. (They’re called pamphlets, but if you’ve never seen one these are more like booklets. Well worth what you pay for them.) You can buy them at the link provided, at your local Scout Shop or you can check them out for free at your library. Look for used copies online or in used book stores.

These pamphlets are written specifically for the boy earning the badge. Reading the pamphlet will give him more depth and meaning to the experience than merely checking off a list of requirements. The pamphlets often give tips and ideas for fulfilling some of the requirements.

Make sure your son has access to the pamphlet and encourage him to read it.You may want to read it too, or at least give it a good skim.

There’s a place on the blue card for the counselor to sign off on individual requirements as they’re passed off. Depending on the boy, the merit badge and individual circumstances, a merit badge may be earned in as little as a few weeks or take as long as a few years. For merit badges that may take longer to earn, getting a signature for each requirement as you go will make sure your son doesn’t have to do work over again at a later date.

5. Obtain the Merit Badge Counselor’s Signature

Once the work for the merit badge is completed, the counselor signs and dates the blue card.

Keep in mind this is considered an official document by the BSA.

Once the merit badge is earned the blue card is separated into three parts, along the perforated creases. One part goes to the BSA along with other paperwork. (This is, or should be, handled by your ward’s scout leaders and committee. I’m told much of this is now done online.) One part is for the counselor to keep. One part is for the boy to keep or, more likely, the boy’s mother. Which brings us to the final step…

6. Keep Good Records

The date on the blue card is the date the merit badge is earned, NOT the date paperwork is submitted to council or the date the boy receives the award in a Court of Honor.

Keep your son’s portion of his blue card in a safe place. When he is awarded his merit badge in a Court of Honor, the badge will be attached to a card indicating when the merit badge was earned and will have signatures of leaders as well. Keep this card too.

A Final Word

Boy Scouts is different from Cub Scouts in that most of the work for rank advancements and merit badges is done outside the home. Often, your son will earn merit badges at his weekly meetings and at scout camp without you having to do a thing. All the steps above are taken care of by your son and his leader. Hooray for leaders!

In those cases, all you need to do is make sure you have your son’s portion of the blue card in hand when it’s all said and done.

Pester those leaders for it if you have to.

You did read the horror story above, right?

For merit badges your son wants to do in addition to what’s being done with his troop, see if your ward or stake maintains a list of merit badge counselors who are willing to work with boys on specific badges. My stake has a list with at least one name under just about every merit badge offered. This is a great resource if your son is interested in something like Aviation or Veterinary Medicine. If you go this route, just make sure the rules about the buddy system are being followed at all times. You can always be a buddy and accompany your son to meetings with his counselor if necessary.

Most of all, keep to the spirit of merit badges. The point is not to collect badges to sew on a sash but rather to give boys a positive and challenging experience while they learn new skills and explore interests.

In fact, there are a few I’d like to “earn” myself, even if BSA doesn’t give moms the badge. Think I can manage a 20-mile hike?