You won't find the merit badge Karen Aarkley earned in the standard Girl Scouts manual. In fact, it's homemade.
Aarkley was one of seven members of Girl Scouts Troop 779 to receive a badge Thursday night for handgun marksmanship and weapon safety - not the standard Scouts fare.Over the past six weeks, Aarkley and her other Scouts have learned how to aim and fire a handgun and a .22-caliber rifle on an indoor range. It was a break from the routine the girls seemed to enjoy.
"Selling cookies, you have to go door-to-door in your uniform," she said. "Here, you can just come in your (everyday) clothes and hang out. "
Troop leader Diane Hall said at first she was nervous that the local governing body would nix the program this year. But the governing board decided to allow the program to continue for at least this year.
Hall, who gave out the first shooting badges back in 1967, was overjoyed.
The shooting course is part of the Scouts' interest program, an unstructured area that allows girls to earn merit badges in fields of their own choosing.