Cemex’s FEC And Brooksville Quarries Help Boy Scouts Earn Their Geology And Mining And Society Merit Badges.
By Therese Dunphy
For the better part of a decade, Boy Scouts in Florida have had the opportunity to earn one of the Boy Scouts of America’s more difficult merit badges to attain: Mining and Society. This badge can be challenging to earn because one of the requirements is for the scout to either interview a miner; explore three career opportunities in the mining industry and discuss it with their counselor; or visit a college, university or trade school and learn about the educational and training requirements for a position in the industry.
Working with Cemex’s FEC and Brooksville quarries, however, the badge has become more attainable for scouts in those areas, as the company explored how it could partner with the local council. The result? A one-day program that not only allows participants to earn the Mining and Society Merit Badge, but the Geology Merit Badge as well.
A Day of Learning
Through its relationship with Cemex, the local Boy Scouts Council promotes events held at a Cemex site and handles the sign ups. According to Sheri Spivey, Cemex community relations specialist, Eastern Region, the available spaces for the seminar quickly fill up.
On the day of the event, Cemex pays for a charter bus which picks up scouts at an off-site location and transports them to the hosting quarry. Once they arrive, Spivey, who is a former teacher, conducts a pre-event assessment of their knowledge.
Then, the scouts attend a safety presentation, learn what type of personal protective equipment (PPE) is worn and why, and receive PPE for a plant tour later in the day. They also learn how to protect hands and feet, in conjunction with the merit badge’s requirements.
An environmental session follows, detailing the impacts of mining, permit requirements, and reclamation. During the reclamation discussion, the instructor highlights the transformation of a former mine site into what is now the Boy Scouts of America Summit Bechtel Reserve, a training, scouting, and adventure center located in West Virginia.
A mine tour, often including a blast, breaks up classroom time. During the tour, scouts learn about mineral exploration, mine planning, permitting and processing.
Following lunch, the educational focus shifts to geology with a discussion of recycling and a hands-on session in which the scouts learn to identify minerals. At the end day, a post-assessment is also held, with knowledge gains typically moving from 60%, with prior knowledge being strongest in the geology areas, to 95%.
Training and Benefits
To be able to offer the program, an operator must first have a merit badge counselor. Cemex’s Spivey serves that role for these one-day seminars. To qualify, she had to complete an approximately 90-minute online training program as well as refresher training every two years. For other operators who are interested in hosting a merit badge seminar, Spivey says to start by ensuring someone on site has the required training.
“Maybe you have employees with kids who are in the Scouts,” she said. “That’s a really great place to start. Begin with your local Scouting District or Council and get the conversation started.” In addition, Spivey suggested that operators not be afraid to limit the group size to what they can manage in a common space such as a conference room. If the program is well received, she said, it can be repeated multiple times per year.
In 2024, she estimates that approximately 180 scouts and adults will attend the three sessions offered at FEC and Brooksville. Cemex also benefits from hosting the sessions as it goes toward the education requirements of its Wildlife Habitation Council certification. Like Cemex’s education programs, which host approximately 2,000 at its six environmental classrooms in Florida, the Scouts relationship has a profound impact on its participants.
“I was at a community event and two parents of scouts who were at Brooksville came up to me and said, ‘I can’t tell you how many people I have told about Cemex and all that you guys do to protect the environment and reclaim your mines and all that you go through in order to do all of that,” Spivey shared. “It’s great for the scouts, but it’s also great for the parents who are with them. It allows us to be able to tell our story and for them to see the rules we have to follow and the people we have to answer to.”
While most Boy Scouts tours feature a blast, a recent tour gave the young people a chance to see the scale of equipment, such as this dragline bucket, sometimes used in mining.
Therese Dunphy has covered the aggregates industry for nearly 30 years, while also serving multiple roles as a public official. As the owner of Stone Age Communications, she provides communications consulting services to help aggregate producers build stronger relationships within the communities they serve. She can be reached at [email protected].