Merit Badges

You may have seen pictures of boy scouts or girl scouts in their uniforms and wondered what those round colorful patches were.  Those are called merit badges and they are a big part of being a scout.  

All scouts have a big book with all kinds of different merit badges in it.  The idea is the scout picks something they want to learn more about from the badges listed in the book.  They turn to that page and it will have a list of activities that they need to do.  When they have completed all of the steps successfully, then they receive the merit badge to sew on their uniform.  

It's a great way for young people to explore different topics and to learn new skills.  If you want to see a list of different Boy Scout merit badges click on this link. http://www.scouting.org/meritbadges.aspx

Scouts can earn badges with their group or they can work on them alone.  

There are many, many different merit badges so it is easy to find a skill or topic that a scout wants to know more about.