Record Numbers of Scouts Participate in Papermaking, Graphic Arts Merit Badge Days
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The State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, (SUNY-ESF), Syracuse, N.Y., USA, reports that more than 250 boys between the ages of 11 and 17 invaded its campus this past weekend, with one goal in mind—to get a merit badge. The boys represented troops from the Longhouse Council of the Boy Scouts of America based in Syracuse, as well as scouts from across upstate New York.
The Boy Scouts took courses toward getting 16 different merit badges, including a pulp and paper (papermaking) badge. The SUNY-ESF paper facilities were used to teach the rarer Pulp and Paper (Papermaking) merit badge program.
"This is the 12th consecutive year APO has hosted Merit Badge Day," said Chapter President Meredith Nackley. "Phi Chapter goes into the surrounding community on a daily basis to do service projects. Merit Badge Day has always been a great way for us to extend our hand to local youth. We invite them up to the Hill for a taste of college and to teach them the skills they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to learn."
Meanwhile, at Carson, Calif., USA, the International Printing Museum will host a Boy Scout Merit Badge Day on May 7. Already more than 200 Boy Scouts have signed up to earn Graphic Arts and Pulp and Paper merit badges.
"For the past eight years, I have been a merit badge counselor for the Graphic Arts and Pulp and Paper merit badges," said Don Burdge, president of Burdge Cooper Printing. "During that time I received only one call from a boy interested in getting his Graphic Arts merit badge; and he never showed up for the appointment.
"Witnessing the demise of graphic arts education in our school system over the past generation and watching the public condemn paper as an evil tree killer, I was not too surprised that today's youth did not seem interested in our industry. Yet as the father of an eagle scout (and one myself), I knew that scouts jumped at the opportunity to further their rank advancement during ‘merit badge days' held throughout the city.
"For the past year or so, Mark Barbour, curator at the Printing Museum, and I kicked around the idea of creating a Merit Badge Day at the museum," Burdge continued. "Recently, with help from Dan Freedland of Southwest Offset, and Ethan Lipton, professor at Cal State LA, we developed a program that will be held on May 7, the day before Mother's Day. Flyers were printed up and calls were made to the five Boy Scout Councils in Southern California to promote this event and a week later we were sold out with another 100 boys on a waiting list (Why isn't printing this easy to sell?)."
The scouts will spend all day at the museum completing 21 requirements at 12 stations around the museum property. They will make their own paper, silk screen their own T-shirts, and print their own Mothers Day card, along with earning two merit badges in the process. They will learn about careers in the industry and about colleges in the area that offer graphic arts programs. They will also learn that, contrary to popular to belief, paper is actually good for the earth and the forests.
To accommodate the backlog of scouts already signed up, a second Merit Badge Day will be offered on June 18. As long as there continues to be interest by the Boy Scouts in earning the Graphic Arts and Pulp and Paper merit badges, the museum says it will continue to host a Merit Badge Day.
"We currently have about 20 volunteers lined up, but we still need another 20 from our industry to help out that day," Burdge (don@burdgecooper.com) noted.
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