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Boy Scouts earn Merit Badges

The week long annual American Samoa District Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Summer Camp ends today at the Fatu O Aiga Parish ground in Ottoville with over 150 Boy Scouts taking part.

“We do this camp every year, with it taking place at various locations and this year we are having it here at Fatu O Aiga. We have eleven units with 158 Boy Scouts that have registered for this camp,” said the District Executive for the American Samoa District from the Aloha Council BSA Fiamatai Faitau. He went on to explain that during the summer camps, the scouts work and earn their Merit Badges.

“This year, we’ve added to our Merit Badges the Theater Merit Badges, with members from the film ‘The Tuiga’ working with some of the Scouts helping them out with their Theater Merit Badge”. (The Tuiga was made by Samoan filmmaker Tanupo Aukuso, which includes Tuiga 1 & 2 and the movie ‘Tauaso le Alofa’ or ‘Love is Blind’ which was filmed entirely here in American Samoa.

“We have made so many improvements on our camp. The Scouts are getting better with their skills constantly. We are preparing ourselves for a much bigger camp that will take place in American Samoa in 2014. At that time, we will be inviting other units from off island that will be from Samoa and Hawaii,” said Faitau.

Faitau thanked Bishop John Quinn Weitzel for allowing the Boy Scouts to use the Fatu O Aiga Parish Grounds for their summer camp, the Lions Club and all who helped make their summer camp a success.

Samoa News had a chance to speak with ‘Tauaso le Alofa’ actor Tauese Vine, who was on hand at the camp helping the Scouts. She stated that she wanted to help these young kids with acting which could possibly lead them into a career in television to help support their family.

Some of the Merit Badges earned during the Summer Camp were for woodwork, sports, personal fitness, theater, music, art, environmental science, first aid, soil and water conservation, knots and lashing, emergency preparedness and wilderness survival.

Samoa News spoke with some of the Scouts attending the summer camp who all said they had a great time during the week and it was fun meeting up other scouts from across the island learning from and helping one another.

According to the BSA website, http://scouting.org, as of 2011 concerning BSA membership, there were 848,291 Boy Scouts, 39,392 Boy Scout troops and 496,398 Boy Scout leaders and according to scout.org, there are more than 28 million Scouts, young people and adults, male and female, in 160 countries and territories. Some 300 million people have been Scouts (since its start in 1907), including prominent people in every field.