Emory & Henry College Host Scouts Across Appalachia at Merit Badge Camp

Faculty, staff and students of the Emory & Henry College community hosted 81 scouts with 28 parents and troop leaders on campus for a Merit Badge camp on Saturday, April 13, 2024. This is the first time the camp occurred on the Emory campus as the event previously was held in 2018 and 2019 on the Health Sciences Campus in Marion. 

The Merit Badge camp was organized by Dr. Jean Irion, a retired physical therapy faculty member of the Emory & Henry School of Health Sciences and mother of two Eagle Scouts, and Billy Chandler, Emory & Henry’s Web Content Coordinator, Eagle Scout and Boy Scouts of America Volunteer. The Sequoyah Council of the Boy Scouts of America, headquartered in Johnson City, Tenn. assisted Emory & Henry with registering Scouts and leaders from Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

“It was great to see Scouts come in from so many different states in the region. With this being the first time hosting, I hoped for 30 Scouts and was shocked that we hosted more than 80 scouts from seven different councils and four different states,” said Dr. Irion. 

There were 11 Merit badge classes offered throughout the day led by faculty and staff of Emory & Henry, volunteering E&H students and adult troop leaders. Classes were taught on animation, art, disabilities awareness, engineering, entrepreneurship, first aid, gardening, personal fitness, personal management, photography, and scholarship. Between their classes, the Scouts were divided into groups as students talked to each group of Scouts about Emory & Henry while giving a brief tour of the campus.

“It was wonderful to see the Scouts interacting with our faculty and staff who graciously volunteered their time to serve as Merit Badge Instructors, along with the more than 20 Emory & Henry students who also volunteered, two that are Eagle Scouts,” said Irion.  “I had leaders and parents come at the end of the day to thank us for the experience we provided for their scouts and how impressed they were with the campus and what we had to offer.”

In addition, the leaders and scouts were provided with an event survey asking for their feedback. “We received much gratitude about our event with admiration for offering classes for badges which are not so easy to get while suggesting badges to offer in the future,” Irion acknowledged. Emory & Henry hopes that this will become an annual event.