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MC Art Students Design Summer Boy Scout Patches


Boy Scouts going to summer camp at the Warren Hood Scout Reservation will proudly wear new patches on their uniforms. The thanks goes to the designers: Mississippi College art students.

As part of their graphic arts classes, four MC students were the winners of a contest to benefit more than 700 Scouts at the sprawling Copiah County facility. The summer camp runs from June 1 through July 11.

This week, Michael Hataway, the MC graphic design coordinator, announced the winners of the annual patch contest on the Clinton campus. They are all superb students, he said.

"This year, the students were very talented and many submitted more than one patch design," Hataway said. "My wish is that this tradition of letting the students design these patches continues for many more years."

Summer camp director Larry Cagle of the Andrew Jackson Boy Scout Council was delighted with the final products. "This is awesome stuff," he said during a stop at the Baptist-affiliated school Tuesday.

A Raymond resident and former Hinds Community College art professor, Hataway has a long history with Scout patches going back to the early 1990s. He first got involved as a Cub Scout leader when he was an Assistant Cubmaster for Pack 92 sponsored by the Raymond United Methodist Church. The art professor won Scout Patch contests in 1994 through 1997 before getting his students involved in the competition.

At Mississippi College, Brittney Baham of New Orleans was the first-place winner. The creative project, she said, "is better than doing book work. This gives us a chance to get our work established." The MC senior is a graduate of Xavier Preparatory High School in Louisiana.

MC senior Stephen Ginn, 22, a Flowood native and Madison Central High graduate, was recognized twice. The Madison resident won 2nd and 5th-place awards. Ginn also is responsible for layout for the "Collegian," the student newspaper, and the MC literary magazine, the "Arrowhead."

An MC junior and Meridian native, Sarah Baker of Toomsuba picked up the third-place award for her Davy Crockett patch. Megan Venture of Harahan, La. received 4th place honors. "I had a blast working on the Scout project," she said.

More than 700 Scouts will be joined by 200 Scout leaders at the summer camp in Copiah County. Designs crafted by winners in previous years stick around. Many of the Scout patches are hanging in the dining hall at the Boy Scout camp. Some of the patches date back to the early 1970s.

PHOTO: Brittney Baham of New Orleans; Stephen Ginn of Flowood; Professor Michael Hataway; Sarah Baker of Toomsuba; Larry Cagle of the Boy Scouts, Megan Venture of Harahan, La.