Current I Can Do That E-Newsletter
You can view a PDF version of this issue HERE.
For previous issues click on “I Can Do That E-Newsletter” below.
Local Council Updates
Eagle Scout Honors WWII Veterans With Project
Jefferson County Eagle Scout Chad H. has completed an Eagle Scout project that will provide a lasting reminder of the people who lost their lives at the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Chase construct a cabinet to display a piece of the USS Arizona, a battleship that sank during the attack on Dec 7th, 1941. The cabinet will be installed in the POW/MIA Museum under development at Jefferson Barracks.
Read the entire article here.
Scout Earns Hornaday Award for Conservation!
Earning the Boy Scouts of America’s William T. Hornaday Award is no small feat. For Eagle Scout James Karslake, 14, the journey took him through four projects and two-and-a-half years. Karslake, a member of Boy Scout Troop 344, Ladue, worked with Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, Kirkwood, to remove invasive honeysuckle and replace it with native plants. Karslake also established bat boxes at Beaumont Scout Reservation, High Ridge, to help a large bat colony displaced by renovations at a local church. He planted willow tree stakes and native bushes along Deer Creek to prevent erosion, and planted natives and set up bee boxes in Southwest Park, Webster Groves. Congratulations, James!
Local Merit Badge Counselor Helps 450 Scouts Earn Landscape Architecture Merit Badge....During a Pandemic!
Exactly 1,400 Scouts earned the Landscape Architecture merit badge in 2020, according to the official numbers.
Erin McCown Foster, a merit badge counselor in the Greater St. Louis Area Council, mom of three Scouts and professional landscape architect was responsible for 450 of those Scouts — an astounding 32%. Scouts from all over the United States have taken her Landscape Architecture merit badge course via Zoom, including Scouts from Puerto Rico. She’s even had Scouts BSA members from overseas sign up, receiving blue cards from Scouts living in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Central America.
“I thought that maybe by providing these classes I could keep Scouts engaged in Scouting, provide a connection to others during a time of social distancing and maybe help other families like mine keep their kids mentally fit during unprecedented times,” she says. “In the end, it helped me get though the last year of social isolation, too.”
How does Foster make the Landscape Architecture merit badge so exciting? What can other merit badge counselors learn from her about teaching classes over Zoom? And why does she devote so much time and energy to an unpaid gig?
Read the whole story HERE to find out!
National Council Updates
None at this time.
The I Can Do That e-Newsletter
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