Scout Blue Card

[RiverRat]

Life's taken me away from the river for a season but I'm still in the game thru teaching Scouts their fly fishing merit badge. Travis is a member of Troop 147 and a 2013 SSFFC KA grad. His brother John and friend Nate also atended KA 2011 and earned their badges last year.

Not posting to boast but to bring to light that we need to get more blue cards signed with the Fly Fishing Merit Badge! Fly Fishing ended up ranked 97th out of 130 possible merit badges with 4291 earned in 2012. Sounds great until you look see the potential growth since 92,312 earned the First Aid badge for the top spot. On a great note, the Fly Fishing badge was intsutued in 2002 and showed a 777.51% increase from 2008 to 2012! Bakersfield has three registered Fly Fishing merit badge counselors and I'm proud to say all are SSFFC members but on the other hand the scout office never calls with anyone asking for the badge, I find them.

Overall Scouts are in trouble in teaching outdoor activities. Based on feedback from their LEADERS who are reporting to national that kids do not enjoy doing outdoor activities. In response most outdoor badges are being watered down by taking the "Outing Out of Scouting" within many badges. A sad trend since Scouting was meant to teach kids how to enjoy the outdoors.

Please take teaching our sport into consideration.

Thanks!

Shane

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shane

[NorcalBob]

When I owned my fly shop I contacted all the local Boy Scout Troops (5) to sponsor for the FF merit badge. Only one troop master even bothered to return my phone calls, and they weren't even interested.

[RiverRat]

When I owned my fly shop I contacted all the local Boy Scout Troops (5) to sponsor for the FF merit badge. Only one troop master even bothered to return my phone calls, and they weren't even interested.

Northern California where you would think outdoor culture is more appreciated and handed to them from a fly shop, how easy a badge would that be!

shane