MC Art Student Wins Boy Scout Design Contest

Bobby D'Alessandro and Larry Cagle of the Andrew Jackson Boy Scout Council

Mississippi College senior Bobby D’Alessandro designed the patch worn by hundreds of Boy Scouts at summer camp in Copiah County.

The creative work by the graphic design major from Cocoa, Florida was judged the best in the MC Art Department class taught by instructor Kent Mummert. And that opened the door to its use on boys’ uniforms at the Warren Hood Scout Reservation.

Some of the patches worn by the Mississippi scouts were also taken on the road to the national scouting Jamboree in Virginia over the summer. It’s a tradition for scouts to swap patches with troops from around the nation.

An MC graduate, Mummert is now making plans for his class to meet in late September with Larry Cagle of the Andrew Jackson Boy Scout Council to start work on next year’s contest. Cagle serves as the summer camp director.

D’Alessandro, who’s on track to graduate from MC in May 2011, is considering graduate school or returning to the firm where he interned over the summer.

This is Mummert’s first year to run the patch contest. “Bobby used the Boy Scout insignia as inspiration for the patch,” Mummert said.

In recent years, graphic design coordinator Michael Hataway judged the contest winners from his Mississippi College classes.

A Raymond resident and former Hinds Community College art instructor, Hataway has a long history with Scout patches going back to the 1990s. The MC graduate won Scout patch contests in 1994 through 1997 before getting his students involved in the competition.