Citizen Activity Badge –

Community Group

Circle Ten Council

Den Activities

One way to make this activity badge come alive is to get involved. A good citizen gets involved where he lives. Your involvement can start at any age and it can be almost any useful act. Now is a good time to plan a citizenship project for your Webelos den.

Clothing Drive

Often after a fire, flood, or other disaster many people will be without sufficient clothing. Generally, local authorities coordinate a campaign to get used clothing in serviceable condition for distribution to the victims. Councils and districts should cooperate with local authorities and not attempt to set up an independent project.

Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign

A natural follow-up to registration campaign is an effort to get every eligible voter to vote. This calls for an educational and promotional campaign aimed at reminding citizens of their right and duty to vote. The campaign must be non-partisan. Before the election distribute get-out-the-vote materials. On election day, Scouts may be stationed outside polling places to "baby-sit" young children, hold packages, assist elderly or handicapped people, and provide "I have voted" badges to voters, leaving them as a reminder to others.

Mark Homes for Disabled Persons

In cooperation with fire departments, install amber reflectors (or other distinctive devices) over the front doors of homes where handicapped persons live. Then if a fire breaks out, the firefighters will know immediately that a handicapped person lives there. A similar device may be placed on the door of the person's bedroom to help firefighters find it in an emergency.  Fire departments generally provide the insignia, usually placed on the front downstairs window near the door or on the glass of the front door. A similar device is placed on the window of the invalid's room. Caution: Be sure you have approval of everyone living in that home before you place markers.

Collect Christmas Toys

In many communities, new and used but still usable toys are collected for` distribution to needy children at Christmas. Units may assist by making pickups of toys, making posters to advertise the campaign, helping to stockpile toys, cleaning and repairing used toys, and delivering toys to the agencies that distribute them to poor children. Each youth member may also be asked to contribute one usable toy.

Flying Flags

Buy a bulk of small plastic flags. Divide them up to all the den members during the closing ceremony. Tell them to carry the flags around this week and give them to people who are being "Good Citizens," explaining why.

Citizen (Tune: Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Fly, fly, fly your flag,

On our holidays,

Be a loyal citizen,

In this and other ways.

We're good citizens,

From a land that's free,

We should all be proud to serve,

So patriotically.

Be good citizens,

Webelos like me,

I'll be loyal, honest, true,

And keep my country free.

Duties & Rights

By Barb Stephens

Every Citizen has ...

Complete each statement by inserting

duty or right in the blank.

1.       The________ to obey all laws.

2.       The________ to equal protection of laws and equal justice in the courts.

3.       The________ to respect the rights of others.

4.       The________ to inform yourself on issues of government.

5.       The________ to be free of arbitrary search and seizure.

6.       The________ to equal education and economic opportunity.

7.       The________ to serve on a jury if called.

8.       The________ to vote.

9.       The________ to own property.

10.    The________ to vote in elections.

11.    The________ to serve and defend your country.

12.    The________ to free speech, press, and assembly.

13.    The________ to assist agencies of law enforcement.

14.    The________ to a lawyer of your choice and a prompt trial if accused of a crime.

15.    The________ to practice and teach the principle of good citizenship in your home.

Answers

1. Duty,  2. Right,  3. Duty,  4. Duty,  5. Right,  6. Right,  7. Duty,  8. Right,  9. Right,  10. Duty,  11. Duty,  12. right,  13. Duty,  14. Right,  15. Duty

Patriotic Wall Plaque

Using a copy of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights or the Gettysburg Address make a wall plaque by mounting one of these on 1/48 plywood shaped into the design of a scroll. Make your scroll slightly larger than your copy. Finish plywood by sanding, staining a natural color and varnishing -- or leave the wood grain and color show through by eliminating stain and just finishing with varnish.

Games

American Heritage

Find pictures of well known buildings, symbols or people and tape each one onto construction paper. (Example: White House, Uncle Sam, President Clinton. Eagle, plus some harder ones like the Presidential Seal or your state Governor.) Number each picture and then hang on the wall. Give each boy a paper and pencil and have them list numbers down the side. Set a time limit, and ask the boys to circulate, looking at the pictures and writing down the name. The den historian is the person who has the most written down correctly at the end of the time period. Be sure to review all the answers out loud so all can hear the correct answers.

Heads Of Government Game

Material needed: Pictures of government officials from newspapers or magazines, nametags with the officials' names written on them. Have Webelos match the correct name with each official. You may wish to try this at the local, state and federal government levels.

Newspaper Study

Material needed: One current newspaper per team. Divide boys into teams. On signal, each team starts a search for news items that illustrate good citizenship. Team with the most clippings in a given time period is the winner.

Build A Flag

Materials needed: For each team, 1 set of the five US flags shown in Citizen section of the Webelos handbook. With a color copier, each flag to fit onto a standard sheet of card stock. If preferred, draw a set of the flags for each team. When the flag sets are copied, cut each flag picture into 2 pieces, the stripes and the field of stars. Prepare cards with the name of each flag and year of each flag. A corkboard and pushpins are needed. Divide Webelos into two teams. First boy from each team runs to his team's pile of pieces, grabs a stripe piece and a push pin and pins it to the corkboard. He runs back and touches off

the second boy, who pins up a star field piece, which matches the striping. Next team member matches appropriate flag name and fourth member pins up the year of the flag. Continue to rotate until all five flags have been properly constructed, named, and dated.

Citizenship Test

Two teams face each other with a wide space between them. The leader asks each player a question about the Declaration of Independence, the Star Spangled Banner, the President, Vice­President, Governor, or other fitting subject. A correct answer entitles that team to move one step forward. An incorrect answer passes the question to the other team. The first team to cross the other team's starting line is the winner.