ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Campers are typically not seen on the campus of Seward County Community College, but February’s last full weekend saw the invasion of more than a few campers looking to improve some of their skills and earn badges.
SCCC was the home to this year’s annual Santa Fe Trails District Merit Badge Fair, and District Associate Trina Fosdick said Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts came to Liberal from not only the Santa Fe district, but the neighboring Quivira Council, which serves much of Eastern Kansas, and Golden Spread Council, which covers not only Kansas, but also the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles.
Scouts of all ranks, and even some adults, had the opportunity to take more than 25 different classes last weekend, including eight Eagle-required classes right on the SCCC campus over the course of three days. Fosdick said some of the classes took place all day, particularly those required for the Eagle rank, and there were a wide variety of topics to choose from at the event.
“They’re taking everything from welding and automotive maintenance to citizenship in the nation,” she said. “We’ve also got lifesaving going on in the pool, some swimming requirements that need to be had for certain ranks. We’ve also got theater, communication, photography.”
Classes took place in SCCC’s Hobble Academic Building, Shank Humanities Building and the Student Union, and even away from learning, the young men continued to spend time on the campus.
“They camp out either outside or inside,” Fosdick said. “They can either brave the elements or hang out inside, whatever’s more comfortable for them.”
This year’s Merit Badge Fair also featured classes for adults to get needed training, and Fosdick said this is the second year Cub Scouts have been part of the event.
“They’re learning their engineering, belt loops and pins,” she said. “They’ll do their swimming this evening. They’re over there doing tic-tac-toe boards, flying airplanes and making roller coasters. They’ll be doing that all day.”
Fosdick said previous Merit Badge Fairs have gone quite well.
“There’s the normal bumps of anything scheduled,” she said. “There’s always something that pops up, but nothing that is ever too noticeable for the patrons at hand. Usually, we keep it on the back burner, and nobody notices. We move on. Sometimes, a room shuffle has to happen, but never anything too serious. They run really smoothly.”
Fosdick said the 2023 event saw 200 Scouts taking part, and she said this year’s event saw at least that many between Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts.
“We have more Cubs this year than we had last year,” she said. “That was really nice to see.”
The Merit Badge Fair started in 2018 as a small event taking place at the pool at SCCC in the evenings with Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts.
“We did swimming only,” Fosdick said. “We did a lock-in, and we ordered pizza.”
Fosdick said the event has since blossomed and bloomed into what it is now.
“We did our last one in 2020 with just the pool and the Cubs,” she said. “In ’21, we did it at one of the churches locally. Due to the COVID pandemic, we weren’t allowed to have the pool. We did it at one of the churches.”
In 2022, the event was brought back to SCCC, and Fosdick said the Merit Badge Fair has rapidly grown since then.
“It started with 12, 15 classes and has grown into the 28, 30 classes we offer now with the adult and Cub Scouts,” she said. “It has been growing for a long time.”
Fosdick estimated 85 percent of the merit badges offered at the event could be fully earned at the event.
“Some of them have a few prerequisites, which is like maybe bringing a first aid kit, maybe visiting a meeting before they come like a civic meeting for citizenship, simple little things they can easily get. But most of it is if they come prepared ready to learn in the class, they will earn the whole thing here,” she said. “I pick the ones I do to keep it to where it’s not where they only get a quarter or half of it here and have to go earn the rest of it somewhere else.”
Fosdick said she likes being able to offer the chance to earn multiple badges at one event.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “With the Eagle Scout required ones I offer here, it gives them an opportunity to get them closer to their Eagle, which is always the goal of a Scout. That’s the top rank. That’s where you want to get. When we can knock out three, four and sometimes even five merit badges in a day and three or four of those are Eagle required, that puts them on the next rung so much closer to where they wouldn’t have been before.”
