Astronomy at the Crab

Summer is over and so is summer camp 2024. It is now officially part of history! A big part of what made the 2024 summer camp different from other years was the merit badge schedule. This summer camp tried out a block schedule, meaning a merit badge was no longer taught five days a week, but in a block which might last half a day, a day, or a day and half, depending on the merit badge.

One of the advantages to this approach was it allowed experts from the outside world to be brought in to teach at camp. While it would be very difficult to get such people in five days a week for an hour for several weeks, it was much simpler to get these people to come once a week three or four times.

Astronomy is one of the merit badges that benefitted from this approach. Seen here is an Astronomy merit badge session at the top of the hill. A telescope is close by for some celestial observations once the sun set.

Astronomy Merit Badge, June 2024. Collection of Gavin Nixon.

Wood Badge, MT-1

Fall is approaching (though it may not feel like it), which means that a new Wood Badge course is on the horizon. The first Wood Badge held at Boxwell was held at Rock Island in 1951. It was a regional course, the 34th in fact, since the program took root.

MT-1, or the first Wood Badge for Middle Tennessee, was held at Rock Island Boxwell the week of August 1-7 in 1954. Harry “Beany” Elam of Springfield was the Scoutmaster. The standard patrols were there as well: Eagles, Foxes, and Bobwhites. It was an intense experience. Jack Bond, writer for the _Nashville Banner_, would participate in a course in 1959 and it wiped him out. Bond declared that should he attend again, he would need to “scrimmage a few weeks first [with] the Vanderbilt football squad” to prepare.

Among the participants of MT-1 was the legendary John M. Green of Franklin. Attending as a member of the Fox Patrol, Green and his fellow participants are here putting their lashing skills to work building a bridge, one of several pioneering projects completed that week.

John Green’s Fox Patrol works on their Pioneering project, August 1954. Collection of Leonora Clifford.