Scouting has a positive impact on countless people around the world every day. Here is another “Scouts in Action” story from North Shore.
Dog Care is a one of several badges that are most often recommended for new scouts who want to get started on a merit badge without diving into an Eagle or other badge with requirements that are more complicated and time consuming. Remember: no badges are required at all until a scout works on her Star, Life and Eagle ranks, and there are more than 130 choices; so if you’ve already got a dog and are taking care of it, then this should be a relativey easy introductory badge. And then, theoretically, later on in their scouting career, a typical youth would concentrate more on Eagle badges.
Enter not-so-typical scout Grace Hearn, Troop 358, who has less than a year of eligibility remaining and wants to do it all. She’s been a Scout for 2.5 years, is a Life Scout, is the OA Vice Chief of Ceremonies for North Shore, completed a 12-day Philmont this summer, has completed 16 merit badges, and is working on a dozen more including her remaining Eagle badges, Coin Collecting, Scouting Heritage, Fishing, … and Dog Care.
Every merit badge includes a safety section, and for Dog Care that includes safety for human handlers as well as their canine companions. In her research, Grace noted that many household foods that are safe for humans are not safe for dogs. So on the day that Grace found her two dogs in the pantry snacking on raisins, she jumped into action to get them to the vet, have their stomaches pumped, and saved their lives. She said they are very small dogs and ate quite a lot of raisins, so the consequences could have been fatal. Thankfully this story has a happy ending for the dogs.
What’s next for Grace? She’s planning her Eagle project which is aiming to help dogs. And as for Grace’s Dog Care merit badge? She still has a couple more requirements to complete, but when she does earn this badge, it will be a very special one that also represents how much Scouting’s impact is felt by her family.
