Chowan University Merit Badge College

Blows it Away That’s right, even Hurricane Juaquin wasn’t a match for the excitement

blowing about by the record number of participants for the Chowan Merit

Badge College. With over 200 Scouts and 50+ Leaders and merit badge

instructors, it was a successful weekend, with several merit badges being

offered for the first time this year. Special thanks go out of course to Brenda

Tinkham for organizing the event, and for Chowan University for being such a

gracious host as always. While things may have seemed a little crazy at times leading up to the weekend, we

are so grateful to all those who came out and made it the biggest success yet!

Some of the highlighted merit badges offered this weekend were Graphic Arts with the Chowan Graphic

Design department where several Scouts in the class garnered insight into something that many people take for

granted these days. Also, with technology making its way into so many parts of our lives, many of our Scouts

were excited to participate in the Game Design and Digital Technology Merit Badges. Chowan Merit Badge

College would not be what it is today, if not for some of the classes that come back year after year such as

Plumbing, Engineering, Photography, Chemistry, and Environmental Science. For those Scouts that aren’t

necessarily into all of the S.T.E.M. merit badges and still wanted to take some of those traditional Scouting Skills,

there was always First Aid taught by the East Carolina Council Aquatics Committee, Forestry taught by our very

own retired Scout Executive, Ray Franks, and Shotgun merit badge taught by the North Carolina Department of

Wildlife. If you missed out on any of these classes this year, go ahead and mark your unit’s calendar so that you

can get registered early next year. The Chowan University Merit Badge College is usually held the first weekend

of October, so make plans to have a good time now!