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Since this merit badge came onto the scene, we thought it was similar to pulling teeth. I mean, come on, this is a no brainer. The tough part was realizing that some of these merit badges have few requirements and the badge is not all that easy to get compared to the easier merit badges. We had some fellas from our club call up the district council office and they were surprised at the lack of interest. I suggested a local Round Table meeting- it was met with about the same enthusiasm. The excitement didn't take long to turn into frustration. Then from out of no where, one of club members had a son in scouts outside our area that was interested. The first round had around 10-12 boys interested along with a few dads. Well, that was the good deed for the year or so we thought. Then we received a second request for the merit badge program with I think another dozen or so boys. The same guys participating in the Trout in the Classroom are the same core folks working with the merit badge program. It was pretty intense and covered all of the requirements except for the actual fishing. We got a handle on close out SA rods kits thru Walmart's internet site that included a reel, backing, fly line and leader. How good would the rods cast for the price offered? I was pleasantly surprised when I tried one out. Even a couple of new members made the same purchase for their first fly rod.
Interest in the merit badge program exceeded our expectations. The scouts also maintained their interest throughout the course, so we invited them to Kistler Ranch for a day of throwing flies and possibly catching fish. How many would actually take us up on this anyhow. Usually this is a club outing and the last thing some of these grey beards wanted was some kid horning in on their day of fishing. Ol Flydrifter savors his time on the water and the last thing he wanted was these new to the sport to ruin his day of fishing. Now, I am not saying that Flydrifter is anti-social, as I'll leave that to folks that fish with him to decide. Heck, he isn't even an old curmudgeon yet, but he is truly on track. Anyhow, we had over 15 boys show up with fly rods and ready to fish. Heck, even some of them had sweet casting strokes. The best thing is everyone caught fish except one boy who left early because of prior commitments. If half of the boys stick with it that would be great.
The idea when initially put forth took some time before the merit badge program took hold. We didn't get much in the way of feedback, but the word filtered out and we started getting more folks calling with interest after we had a class under our belts. What we could not do to garner interest kind of came about by word of mouth from the participants and parents afterwards. Hopefully the level of sharing the information does not wane from the instructors as we do more of these programs. If any of you are out there trying to get this merit badge going, you'll be surprised of the residuals from our efforts. The nice thing was to have a retired graphics guy tell us how to stay on track with visual aids. We had the program developed around a Powerpoint presentation. All aspects of the merit badge were upfront of the boys for most of the program as well as tied into handouts. Having the graphics help was key not to mention having his wife as an educator to give him tips on keeping our youth's attention.
Hope this helps some of you.
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