Scouts Discover Roundup Has Plenty of Merit

Rifle shooting and railroading. Camping and crime prevention. Plumbing and landscape architecture. These were some of the 30-plus workshops and classes that attracted more than 360 Boy Scouts to the Merit Badge Roundup on Saturday.

Troop members ages 11 to 18 from across western Ventura County descended on the Church of Latter-day Saints in Ventura with one purpose: to adorn their sashes with more merit badges.

But the other goal of the day, as explained by event Chairman David Hedman, was to provide the youngsters with skills and experiences they will use in adulthood.

“They often discover what they like to do best in life,” Hedman said. “The boys are exposed to a breadth of experiences, which can help them focus on their interests in the future.”

Each Scout was eligible to register for three programs. Some Scouts earned merit badges at the event; others fulfilled prerequisite work for a badge.

Scouting provides more than just what is offered in workshops, participants said.

“Like people skills,” said 12-year-old Jacob Bahrman of Troop 305 in Santa Paula.

“We have a lot of fun, but we also sometimes get teased,” Jacob said. “Sometimes the kids at school will tell us we’re wasting our time, or call us sissy. I just try and tell them how much fun they’re missing.”

The fun at the roundup included many outdoor workshop sites that checkered the temple grounds.

Boys laced up in-line skates to negotiate a line of orange markers. A small fire smoldered where an instructor taught camping skills. Classmates burned torches to solder copper tubing.

“A lot of this is serious stuff and can be a lot like school,” said 15-year-old Alex Standridge of Camarillo, who relaxed under a shade tree during lunch break. Alex was at the proceedings to earn his Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge, which put him one step closer to Eagle Scout rank.

“I’m learning teamwork and leadership skills,” Alex said. “There isn’t a lot of paperwork like in school, but you do have to study.”

Instructors, who are recruited each year from the community, included Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury and Sheriff Larry Carpenter.

John Hunter, a retired Ventura County Superior Court judge who led a Citizenship in the Community class, was extolling the virtues of the Scouting program in a hallway when he was suddenly drowned out by a fire alarm.

The loud drone sent adults scurrying to turn off the alarm. Word quickly spread that the alarm had been accidentally tripped when somebody backed into it.

Carpenter, wearing a smile, deduced otherwise:

“It was a mechanical failure. No Boy Scout would do that.”