A Simple and Secure Way to Gain Boy Scout Badges

Boy Scouts History 

In February of 1910, the well known Boy Scouts of America organization began. Over the years this organization has had nearly 130 million young boys and girls participate in their programming and over 35 million adults who have supported the mission and cause through volunteering.

This organization is one of the foremost youth programs that focuses on character development and values-based leadership training. Currently, the Scouting organization is composed of approximately 2.2 million youth members between the ages of 5 and 21 and approximately 800,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the U.S.

Boy Scout programs are divided by age and activity. Cub Scouting is for boys and girls in kindergarten through 5th grade and Scouts BSA is open to young men and young women in grades 6 through 12 which includes 7 ranks: Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life and Eagle.

A part of climbing ranks as a scout is earning merit badges. Scouts are encouraged to select a topic in which they would like to earn and work through requirements to gain understanding and skill. Merit badges are a great way for scouts to explore interests and deepen their understanding of a certain skill, trade, or even career! 

Within the Boy Scouts world, merit badges are seen as opportunities instead of simply a task to get done. These badges were always meant to be earned in order to prepare young individuals for the world ahead. Merit badges were strategically designed to emphasize the ability “to do” rather than just retaining knowledge about a subject.  They were designed to introduce scouts to “real life” including careers, hobbies, and other skills. 

If you were to take a look back to the beginnings of the organization, many of the merit badges to be earned would have been opportunities to prepare young people for the world ahead of them. For example, ahead of the automobile becoming more commonplace, the Boy Scouts first learned to drive thanks to the automobiling badge of 1911. Again we see during the world war in 1942, the Boy Scouts went all in on aviation by introducing the aviation badge, and even introduced a spinoff called Air Scouts.

Today we don’t see some of the original merit badges offered as they were 100 years ago, but instead these badges continue to transform as time transforms our world. In the 1911 handbook there were a total of 57 merit badges. Since then an additional 194 merit badges have been created and of these, 104 are still in use. This means that all together, there have been a total of 251 different merit badges over the years.

3 Badges To Earn With Camping.Tools

Communications Badge

Gaining badges through the boy scouts, specifically eagle scout merit badges, can be overwhelming. We hear struggles from scouts and scout leaders alike, “we wish there was a better and more secure way to document and publish our work in order to work toward badges.” 

Within Camping.Tools there is a way to work toward a communications badge through sharing writings in a secure place. On the site you will find that there are two different types of writings, journal entries and travel stories.

Travel stories are for the community to enjoy and while journal entries can be private or shared with select individuals. If you need someone to be able to see your writings who isn’t a part of the Camping.Tools community in order to gain the communications badge, simply invite them through the app!

Journalism Badge

The journalism badge has 5 requirements including writing on the difference between fact and opinion, comparative writings, writing on a public event, writing about a scouting experience, and journalism discussion. This badge is a great badge to earn if one is interested in the field of journalism. The journalism badge will help a scout interested in the field to gain valuable experience.

Many parents, scout leaders, and scouts have posed concerns with just how to go about completing requirements for the journalism badge. Scout leader Luke shared that documentation for these merit badges is difficult and that he is not really sure where to send his scouts. He said he wishes that he had a secure way to share with his troop what is going on and wishes there were a way for their troops to document everything together.

The Camping.Tools app has everything a scout and scout troop needs to be able to document, communicate, and share securely. The camping app was created for adventurers like scout Scott who wants to be able to see what his fellow scouts are doing and documenting. 

With Camping.Tools, scouts have a unique opportunity to document the written requirements for their journalism badge in one place. 

Not only can writings be created and shared on the app, media can easily be added. Before uploading you can add tags, descriptions, and set privacy settings. Upload photos, videos, and add youtube videos to your media!

Camping Badge

To gain a camping badge, there are many requirements including discussions, first aid, camping safety, writings on camping principles and planning, mapping, packing, leading, tenting, cooking, camping experience, hiking, and conservation projects. These requirements, as with all merit badge requirements, can seem overwhelming.

The camping badge is one that must be documented well in order to be earned. Finding a secure place to document camping trips, log plans, create reflections and write about experiences that can be easily shared with others may seem daunting. Camping.Tools is a simple solution for logging all one needs to complete writing and documentation requirements for a camping merit badge!

With Camping.Tools you can keep a private camping journal or share with friends, write stories for all to see, and buy or sell camping gear in a secure location. The capability for scouts to organize media and writings by camping trip securely, and share journal entries along with other writings is unmatched!

The Trips section of the site is where you have access to all trips you have documented and is also where you go to share about your trip from start to finish. In this section you are able to upload media, share campsites, and write journal entries. You will also find trips you have shared with others and trips shared with you in this section!

More than Earning Badges 

Not only is Camping.Tools a perfect app for scouts to be able to work toward earning badges, it’s the perfect community. This app is utilized by those who love camping, nature, and travel. Much of what the Boy Scouts organization values is what this app is all about. If you are a Boy Scout who is looking for a way to document, share, work toward a badge, or find a safe and secure online community who shares similar interests, this app is for you!