July 12th Youth Program – Do You Need Help With Your Case?

If you need help or have questions regarding putting your case together for our Gem Show in September just show up at our General Meeting at 6:30 pm. Mike and Kat will be available to help.

The Cascade Mineralogical Society is a member of AFMS’s program Future Rockhounds of America. All kids belonging to clubs affiliated with Future Rockhounds of America automatically receive the FRA Membership Badge.

The badge program is designed to encourage young Rockhounds to learn further about the hobby of rocks, minerals and/or fossils. It also teaches them confidence in speaking, how to organize their thoughts, writing and presentation skills. Along the way they are awarded badges for their accomplishments and various other forms of recognition for their efforts.

We are working on the Showmanship Badge. In order to earn this badge you must fulfill 3 of the requirements listed in the manual below.  We encourage all our youth members to plan on displaying their own collection at our Rock and Gem Show September 22 & 23. Setup will be between 4 & 8 pm September 21st. Take down is after the show closes on September 23rd.  We will have a display case at our June 14th meeting so that everyone can see what they have to work with.

There are 5 age categories and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place ribbons will be awarded in addition to earning your “Showmanship” badge.

CMS Badge Manual is available at our General Meetings.

Updated: September 30, 2018 — 9:55 pm

Presidents Message

  • Digging It!  Thanks to everyone who came out for our February club meeting – it was a fun one, with our own Roger Danneman presenting the highlights of our field trips to come for 2026. Several club members brought their impressive best finds from 2025 for show and tell. Speaking of field trips – our first field trip of the year is in the books, with a mildly snowy day at the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River up by Ol’ One Lane Bridge outside of Acme, Washington. The variety of rocks this year was excellent, thanks in part to

Meeting Announcements

  • Maureen Carlisle, Former Docent at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, will take us through A Day on a Dig: “Over the years I’ve been asked about what it is like to be on a dino dig, so I’d like to answer some of these questions. I’ll cover some of the practical aspects of both archaeology and paleontology, as I have had the pleasure of being involved in both.” Show and Tell: bring a fossil or artifact that you’ve found or collected.

  • Come one, come all and play ROCK BINGO! With schools out for many local school districts, we invite members, guests, and especially families and kids to come and enjoy one of our most fun nights of the year. Everyone is guaranteed to win at this FREE event! All you have to do is bring three wrapped presents – presents can be rocks, gems, minerals, crystals, fossils, cabochons, slabs, jewelry, tumbled stones – anything you think might be a nice gift for a rock enthusiast. 

  • Our own Mike Blanton will bring his expertise to this club meeting program – he will share the tools, tips and tricks he has developed to drill holes in stones and minerals so you can do more with the rocks you find. Show and Tell: bring a rock you’d like to make into something else.

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