Youth Patriotism Award

[pixiewife 10]

I just wanted to take the time to say something great about the Youth Patriotism Award!

 

I have 15 Wolf Scouts (2 dens) that I have just led through earning the Youth Patriotism Freedom Medal. I thought that it was a very worhtwhile program, and thought that the boys got a lot out of it. At first, I picked the Freedom Medal, because I thought that it was the coolest looking one offered. When I started doing the requirements with the boys, I wondered if they were really going to grasp the topic. The requirements center around freedoms in this country. We learned about the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independance. We learned about specific rights like the Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Religion. We also learned about rights and freedoms in general. Again, I was unsure how much the boys were actually absorbing. Then, as one of the requirements, they had to do a drawing representing a freedom that they had. We had the boys do this on their own, individually, with little direction except the topic. This is when we really found out what they learned! They shocked us with the pictures that they drew! These boys were really insightful! Also, we had them break into groups and put on a puppet show that they wrote. The shows were each about freedom, they wrote 4 completely different puppet show skits that really hammered home the idea of being free in this country! They wrote about being free to have whatever job you want (not having to be what someone tells you to be), they wrote about being able to mave and live wherever you want, and about being able to be a certain religion, or no religion.

We also had a great guest speaker in as part of the electives. We chose to ask our school liason officer (local high school) if he could come in and talk to the boys about freedom, and the difference between freedom and being able to do whatever you want(since that is what most of the boys defined freedom as, initially). He gave a great presentation about how in life you can ALWAYS do WHATEVER you want, until it infringes on someone else! They REALLY got this concept!

All in all it was a great program, and next year as Bears we will be working on one of the other medals, either Heritage or Citizenship. Tentatively, I think I will do Heritage as Bears, Citizenship as First year Webelos, and finish up with Service as Second year Webelos. I think the order for the Webelos plays well into the Webelo program, since Citizenship is one of the Webelo badges you have to earn to earn rank. Then I think the service is a good way to round out your C.S. years, being the leader of the pack, and showing the younger guys what they should be doing.

 

Long story semi short: I would recommend this program to anyone!!!

~Pixie

 

www.youthpatriotism.org

 

P.S. I got all of my medals in like a week, including the Easter holiday in there.

[SctDad 10]

I am going to guess that this medal is not authorized for wear on the BSA uniform.

 

Sounds like a good program and something that I might look into.

 

Thanks for the information.