2nd 100 Days of Scouting: Day 53

Hunting (?) Merit Badge

BoyScoutTrail.com brings us a great 01 APR humor, and I couldn't resist using the merit badge designed for the purpose.

I've gone from not being amused by April Fools Day, but enjoying watching the creative spoofs going on everywhere online.  Still not a fan of the ploys to publicly embarrass others though.

Today's biggest winner though is the weather.  It looks gorgeous out, but cold and windy when you get out there!

Today I:

• Am taking Scouts (girl and boy) to a Bird Study merit badge class put on by local naturalists.  
• Added more dads and Scouts to the backpacking trip for April.  Really 7 dads for 12 boys?  Great bunch of guys to hang out with though...and the Scouts will have fun, too.
• Posted a suggestion to the folks in my Wood Badge class to find a way to remember the "Scout widows" in their lives while they are out in the woods.  I know my wife will like it.

Not pushing too hard today, as I've got 9 straight days of Scouting coming up.  Good day to rest.  What Spring plans do you have for Scouting?  Anything new and exciting?

100 Days of Scouting: Day 53

Today I:

Helped a(nother) Scout with his merit badge selection for summer camp.

Sent out a lot of information (all I could find) on Twitter about the new Historic Merit Badges:  Carpentry, Signaling, Pathfinding, and Tracking.  There are pdf files of the old merit badge manuals for these, too. Tracking was called "Stalking" then--probably a good idea to change in light of the current context of "stalking".

Notified my council store, my district executive, fellow Scouters in our council and, of course, my troop about the new Historic Merit Badge program.

Posted a new Friends Of Scouting event to our council blog.  If you are a Civil War buff and happen to be in the area, you might want to check it out.

There is certainly bad Scouting news coming out of Oregon right now.  How do you handle this kind of press?  Do families ask?  How do you support Scouting in bad times?  Share so that others will "be prepared".