Background and Purpose
One of the strengths of the Venturing program is its ability to meet the interest of all Venturers. Sometimes Venturers like to investigate new, different areas. Variety in a crew always seems to make it more fun to go to meetings and outings. Also, Venturers probably have many interests or would like to have more. Because of that desire, and to provide a pathway to many different experiences, the Venturing Bronze Awards Program is offered..
Venturers can earn their crew's specialty Bronze Award or all five Bronze Awards.
The five different Venturing Bronze Awards (shown above in this order) are:
- Arts and Hobbies,
- Outdoor,
- Sea Scouting (The requirement is to earn the Ordinary Rank),
- Sports, and
- Religious Life. (Formerly called Youth Ministries)
All five Bronze Awards contain the common elements of experience, learning a skill, and sharing your experiences and skills with others. Earning at least one Bronze Award is required for the Venturing Gold Award. The Bronze Award is designed as the entry-level award for a Venturer so that they can acquire usable skills that will carry them along the trail to the Venturing Silver Award.
Requirements
For the Arts and Hobbies, Sports, or Religious Life Bronze Awards, a Venturer must complete at least nine of twelve requirements established for each of those three areas. For the Outdoor Bronze Award, Venturers must complete at least four core requirements and two electives that are found in the Ranger Award requirements. For the Sea Scout Bronze Award, Sea Scouts must earn the Ordinary Rank. To earn a specific Bronze Award such as the Arts and Hobbies Bronze Award, all completed requirements must be Arts and Hobbies requirements.
Here are a couple of sample requirements:
- Sports: Demonstrate by means of a presentation at a crew meeting, or a Cub Scout or Boy Scout meeting that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while playing sports.
- Religious Life: Produce or be a cast member in some type of entertainment production with a religious or ethical theme, such as a play, puppet show or concert, for a children's group, retirement home, homeless shelter, or Cub or Boy Scout group.
Procedure
Bronze candidates may have their crew Advisor or a specialty consultant approve or sign off on that completed requirement. Requirements for the Arts and Hobbies, Sports, and Religious Life Bronze can be found in the Silver Award Guide. Requirements for the Sea Scout Bronze (Ordinary Award) can be found in the Sea Scouting Manual. The requirements for the Outdoor Bronze Award can be found in the Ranger Guidebook. There is no committee review for the Venturing Bronze Award.
Recognition
The Bronze Award is available in two formats. The original award is a colorful, campaign-style ribbon that may be worn on the Sea Scouting or Venturing uniform. If all five are earned, all five may be worn on the uniform. Each ribbon has an icon representing the area it was earned in superimposed on the ribbon, shown at the top of this page.
A Bronze Award medal is also available, and is also shown above. Miniature Pins, which represent the campaign ribbons, are worn on the ribbon portion of the medal, as shown above.
