The Boy Scouts of America's 2010 National Scout Jamboree, to be held at Fort A.P. Hill, near Fredericksburg, Virginia will once again host the Merit Badge Midway.  According to Carey Miller, the Director of the Merit Badge Midway, the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth is the second-most popular booth on the Midway.  Accordingly, during the 2010 National Scout Jamboree Mr. Miller is going to be placing the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth in a featured position to help draw Scouts into the Midway.  This time there will be 95 Merit Badge Booths set up within the Merit Badge Midway.

According to ABANA member and Booth Coordinator, Andrew Hagemann, during the 2001 and the 2005 National Scout Jamborees it was common for forty or fifty Jamboree participants to line up outside the booth an hour before it opened, even though the Scouts had to sit in the sun on a hot and muggy July day.

Once the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth opened up that line rarely got any shorter.  At noontime the Scouts remained in line while they ate their lunches so that they didn't lose their places.  According to Andrew, this is expected to be the case once again during 2010 National Scout Jamboree.

Andrew's team consists of Blacksmiths, Tinsmiths, Founders, and administrative
support people.  This time Andrew's goal is to have at least 50 people on his staff.  To make that goal a reality he and his veterans of the 2005 National Scout Jamboree have been busy recruiting people from all over the nation to join the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth's full-time staff.  He has 52 people who have submitted applications to work in the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth; so far 36 of those applications have been approved.  The remaining applications are working their way through the approval process.

Each one of these Scouting volunteers has to pay the Boy Scouts of America for the privilege of becoming a member at the Jamboree Staff.  They also have to provide their own transportation, to and from Fort A. P. Hill.  If they are Merit Badge Counselors who are teaching a hands-on merit badge like Metalwork then they must bring their own tools, supplies, specialized equipment, and work benches with them to make this happen.  And all of these Scout Leaders do so with smiles on their kind faces and great anticipation in their big hearts.

Eight of these 52 people are ABANA members.  Andrew Hagemann, past ABANA President, Douglas Learn, his son Callum Learn, Richard Herman, James Robarr, J. Soni Davidson, David Macaulay, and Daniel West.  All of these 52 men and women are registered Boy Scout Leaders who are active with their home Council, District, or Boy Scout troop.

Andrew and his team will be teaching Scouts many of the required skills needed to
complete the Metalwork Merit Badge.  This will be the fourth time that Andrew and his team have put on this program at a National Scout Jamboree.

During the 1997 National Scout Jamboree, Andrew had an 8-person staff, and had
287 Scouts visit the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth to make a Dutch oven trivet at a single coal-fired forge.  In 2001 the Boy Scouts of America issued a revised Metalwork Merit Badge book, authored by Andrew, that brought blacksmithing back to the Boy Scouts of America, along with the option to learn about the art of the tinsmith, silversmith, and the founder's metal-casting techniques.

Accordingly, at the 2001 National Scout Jamboree, Andrew had to provide a heavily revised program.  To make it possible to teach the new material contained in the just-revised merit badge book he recruited 32 people who could help him offer the Blacksmith Option, Tinsmith Option, and Founder Option.  With their help he was able to accommodate the 498 Scouts who visited the booth.  At the 2005 National Scout Jamboree Andrew had 34-people on staff, and they offered the Blacksmith Option and the Tinsmith Option to the 505 Scouts who visited the booth.

In 2005 the Foundry Option wasn't offered, but the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth Staff did demonstrate the green-sand casting process, using the lost-foam technique with molten aluminum.

At the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, Andrew and his team will offer the Blacksmith Option, Tinsmith Option, and the Foundry Option, using the green-sand casting process.  Andrew's goal for the 2010 Metalwork Merit Badge Booth is to give at least 550 Scouts a quality hands-on experience.

Because Andrew has been able to obtain donations from Scout-friendly people, Scout-friendly organizations like ABANA, and Scout-friendly private companies, he and his team do not charge a fee to the Scouts who visit the booth.  Nor do they seek to recoup any expenses.  Since a Scout is thrifty, everything that is left over after a Jamboree is carefully saved.  Andrew and his team bring it all back to Newport News, Virginia where it is stored in a secure place for use at the next National Scout Jamboree.  Andrew pays the U-Store shed's yearly rental fee out of his own pocket.

A kind Scout Leader in Boulder City, Nevada gave the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth a brand-new 12-inch metal-cutting lathe and a brand-new 12-inch vertical mill.  While the lathe came ready to operate the vertical mill did not.  The mill needs collets, cutting tools and clamps.  Andrew has recently been given a set of collets, but he is still is lacking in other tooling.  Both machines need the basic measuring devices such as micrometers, run-out gages, and calipers.

Andrew wants to put the donated ABANA funding to use in places where lots of Scouts will get a hands-on experience, rather than spend it on tools for this vertical mill that he plans to show of in Metalwork Merit Badge Booth's Demonstration Area.  Still, he would like to demonstrate this mini-mill and the 12-inch metal-cutting lathe so that the Scouts can see that you don't always have to heat metal to shape it.  Will some of you ABANA members be willing to help Andrew obtain the missing milling tools and machining-related items?

The 2010 Boy Scouts of America's National Scout Jamboree will be held at Fort A. P. Hill.  Nestled in the rolling green hills of Virginia, close to our nation's capital, Fort A.P. Hill lies near many historical Civil War landmarks. This 76,000-acre facility has hosted the National Scout Jamboree since 1981. The Boy Scouts of America uses approximately 3,000 acres of land to support a city of more than 43,000 Scouts and Leaders.

You can well imagine that amount of organization and resources that is needed to run this excellent program.

The Metalwork Merit Badge Booth is where many young boys may well have their first exposure to the age old-craft of Blacksmithing.  Each day thousands Boy Scouts and visitors pass through the Merit Badge Midway; during the ten days of the Jamboree that adds up to a huge number of people.  Any of you who have attended an ABANA Hammer-In know that you can bet your bottom dollar that the smell of burning bituminous coal, the sight of the forge-flames, and the ringing of the anvils attracts the attention of every last one of these visitors!

Perhaps you have read the article in the last Anvil's Ring about the Boy Scout

Hammer-In and member Holly Fisher's involvement in training others to teach the

forging skills to young Scouts?

Just like Holly, many other ABANA members are involved with Scouting, volunteering their time and leadership talent so that other people and their sons' may benefit.  Andrew is one of those unique individuals amongst our membership, and he needs our help.  Until recently, only the ABANA leadership

 knew that our association had assisted Andrew's Metalwork Merit Badge Booth in the past by providing him with a grant for materials.  Once again Andrew will be applying for an ABANA grant, but his needs are truly much larger than what our financial grant can cover.

As I said earlier, Andrew could really use your help.  Listed below are the last of the major items that he and his team need to collect in order to complete their inventory.

For 2010, Andrew and his team have already made the purchase of fire-resistant tarps for shade shelter to accommodate the Boy Scouts of America's continued commitment to high safety standards.  At the beginning of the 2005 National Scout Jamboree Andrew was told by the Boy Scouts of America's Jamboree Safety Officer that he could no longer use the blue-poly tarps that had served his Blacksmiths so well during the two previous Jamborees.  In addition to these fire-resistant tarps, the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth Staff will be hauling over two tons of sheet metal-working equipment, blacksmith tools, foundry tools, soft coal, bar-steel, tin-plated sheet steel, scrap aluminum, numerous other booth set-up materials, and sufficient safety gear for 550 Scouts, plus their hand tools and personal gear to Fort A.P. Hill.  As always in Scouting, the cost of all this comes out of their own pockets.

While we should all give a "Hat's Off' to Andrew and his team, there is something more that we can do to help.  We can make tools, donate bar-stock, help with financial donations, and lend a hand in moving that huge pile of materials, gear and equipment.  Right?

So here is the deal: Presently, a few of us on the ABANA Board of Directors have
secured promises of financial contributions that come to a total of  $1,000.  The
contributors wish to assist Andrew with the Booth's funding needs.  As your President, I propose that we, the ABANA membership, match these funding commitments that have already been secured.  If we do this, we will be then able to provide Andrew and his team with $2000 that they can use to purchase much-needed supplies for the 2010 Metalwork Merit Badge Booth.

Without your help Andrew and his team will have to do the best they can with what they have managed to save from prior National Scout Jamborees, and with whatever they can secure in donations from local steel retailers and metal scrap yards steel.   Andrew assures me that a $2000 grant will go a long, long way to proving the Scouts who visit the Metalwork Booth with everything that they will need to earn all of the hands-on requirements identified in the current Metalwork Merit Badge book.  He also pledges to proudly display an ABANA banner in a prominent place inside the booth, and to make available to the Scouts any ABANA literature that is sent his way. 

In his words, "A grant of that size would be a heaven-sent gift.  The Metalwork Merit Badge Booth has never received such a large financial contribution, even if you add up all of the contributions ever provided over the past three Jamborees."

If you can help with tongs, tools, materials, equipment, fuel or any other of the items needs listed above contact Andrew, using the information provided below.

If you would like to make a financial contribution/donation, please contact the ABANA Central Office or Rome Hutchings, ABANA President.  We will be glad to tell you how to make a contribution/donation to Andrew and his 2010 Metalwork Merit Badge Booth.

Let's help Andrew help the Boy Scouts of America put on an exciting 2010 National Scout Jamboree.  In doing so you will be making sure that the young men who visit the Metalwork Merit Badge Booth will have a first-rate, hands-on experience.  Remember, these Scouts may one day become our nation's next generation of Blacksmiths and accordingly, they may also become future ABANA members.  Our future is in your hands.