Above: With help from Assabet students, Troop 1 Boy Scouts earned their welding badges on Saturday. (Contributed photo)
Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School students spent this last Saturday helping out Southborough Boy Scouts from Troop 1.
Recently, a new welding merit badge became available to scouts. Assabet metal fabrication students approached their teacher with the idea to help scouts earn it.
That teacher, Chief Neil Mansfield, is also head of Assabet’s Junior ROTC program. So it’s not a surprice that JROTC cadets also pitched in to help.
The AVRT students sacrificed a day out of their February break to teach the scouts. Chief Mansfield explained:
on February’s school break this year, over 20 Assabet Valley metal fabrication and USMC JROTC cadets alike showed up at 7: 30 am on the eve of yet another winter New England snow storm and worked until 4 : 30 PM, while snow was falling outside and pilling up, they were teaching boy scouts how to be safe in a metal shop, learn how to operate an Oxy/act torch safety, learn how to cut ½ plate using a Oxy/act cutting torches, learn how to set up a GMAW welding machine, produce basic welding joints using the GMAW process, how to use the proper PPE gear while working in a welding shop, and develop basic knowledge of common electrodes, also, scouts learned Basic identification of metals, and above all careers and employment opportunities in welding, and sheet metal trades.
Below are some contributed photos from the day. (Click thumbnails to enlarge)
Mansfield also shared his encouragement for scouts interested in welding:
With BSA‘s new welding badge program, young scouts will get an opportunity to learn what welding is all about, and even perhaps enter into a vocational High School welding program for their high school education journey, completing a four year certificate in welding and then enter into tomorrow’s work force all by using welding as a gainful employment opportunity.
To all scouts thinking about signing up to earn their metal working badge I say, be adventurous, try something new, learn how you can make a connection by using your mind and your hands, and above all, have fun while making some sparks, you might just want to continue building things out of metal and making them come together using a thing we call welding.
You can learn more about Assabet’s metal fabrication students and JROTC cadets on Mansfield’s website, here.
Great to see these communities coming together to teach and learn. Awesome job.