Working on the Woodcarving Merit Badge at our Troop Meetings
Woodcarving Merit Badge
Most troop meetings focus on learning/practicing a skill or preparing for an upcoming event. Every so often, we allocate a troop meeting to work on a merit badge. It often takes several meetings to complete this due to the time required to complete the requirements.
Our Scouts utilized the past two meetings to work on the Woodcarving Merit Badge.
Much-Appreciated Help
Merit badges often require outside help. While we can complete rank requirements within the troop, only a merit badge counselor can approve the completed requirements for a merit badge. The adult leaders in our troop are registered to teach a few merit badges. Additionally, we know many folks in our area who are merit badge counselors and occasionally reach out to them to help us out.
We are fortunate to know a couple who do a fantastic job teaching the Woodcarving Merit Badge. They own The Countertop Shop here in Collinsville and are very active in Scouting. (They just happen to have a grandson in our troop as well!)
Teaching this merit badge requires a lot of skill and the tools needed for the hands-on portion of the merit badge’s requirements. Fortunately, they have it all covered. Over the past two meetings, our Scouts spent nearly the entire time working on the requirements and learning a new skill.
As Usual, our Scouts Help Out As Well
As you might expect, working on the Woodcarving Merit Badge creates quite a mess. We are very grateful to our Charter Org for letting us use the church basement, and we already strive to leave it looking better than it was when we arrived. As usual, our Scouts all jumped in to help clean things up at the end.
