Topic
Courts of honor, boards of review and service projects that took months of planning. Scouters wrote about the journey to Eagle from every angle, from the first rank advancement to the speech at the ceremony.
917 posts · 2008–2020
Showing 251–300 of 917 posts
You need just three ingredients to guide a Star Scout or Life Scout along the path to Eagle: pizza, soft drinks and conversation. Bob Czekanski has been there, tried that. And Troop 1 in Bolton, Mass. (part of the Nashua Valley Council) is better for it.
Ever since he was in Cub Scouts, Blake Deaton knew he wanted his Eagle Scout service project to help students with special needs. Students like his twin brother, Shane, who is autistic and legally blind. So when he became a Life Scout, Blake approached Savanna Hersh, Shane’s special-needs teacher.
Eagle Scout Alex Sims is all about helping other people. He participates in Scouting for Food drives. He volunteers to clean up his school and his community. And each month, he and some buddies head to the library to teach science to younger students.
Never tell Bryan Zschiesche the odds. Two once-in-a-lifetime events were scheduled for the same Saturday afternoon this month. The likelihood he could attend both? Exceedingly slim. His Boy Scout troop was celebrating its 100th anniversary in Longview, Texas, with the party set to end around 2:30 p.m.
Scouting inspired Marcus Reynerson to become a naturalist, conservationist and environmental educator. And now Reynerson wants to use those talents to save a species. Reynerson and his colleagues are trying to prevent the extinction of the mountain caribou of the Pacific Northwest.
Steven Holcomb, the Eagle Scout who piloted the U.S. four-man bobsled team to Olympic gold in 2010, has died. He was 37. The U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton Federation said Holcomb died in his sleep on Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Update, May 4 : Added three more Scouting alumni: Rep. Jack Bergman (Mich.), Rep. Ted Budd (N.C.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), including one Eagle Scout (Fitzpatrick). Scouts reach some high places. They summit Mount Everest, walk on the moon, become CEOs and win Super Bowls.
A year ago, Troop 443 of North Carolina was on a weekend campout when the Scouts made a daunting discovery: They didn’t bring enough food. “We realized that our patrol members failed to plan for all our food needs,” writes Star Scout Miles L.
Scouts who enter our nation’s military academies find themselves with a leg up on their classmates. Leadership, patriotism and service? Those are characteristics Scouts are known for. No surprise, then, that student applications from cadets and midshipmen at U.S. military academies reveal an impressive number of Eagle Scouts and former Scouts.
Let’s say there’s a Boy Scout who has completed all the requirement for the Eagle Scout rank. He finished the merit badges, service project, active participation, Scout spirit, position of responsibility and unit leader conference. But he still lacks one step: the Eagle Scout board of review.
Tobias Ellwood, the politician gaining praise for his heroism after a fatal stabbing outside the U.K. Parliament in London, is an Eagle Scout. Ellwood, born in New York City to British parents, was a member of the Boy Scouts of America’s Transatlantic Council, which serves American Scouts living overseas.
The description of Canyon Barry the basketball player looks exactly like the description of Canyon Barry the Eagle Scout. “He’s a quiet contributor, good teammate, happy for others’ success and he has a good heart,” said Brian Burnett, Canyon’s former Scoutmaster.
Evan Roe was a Life Scout when Madam Secretary tapped him to join the family. Producers of the CBS drama wanted to cast Evan as Jason McCord, son of the title character played by Téa Leoni. Slight problem, though. The show films in New York, so accepting the job would require Evan to leave San…
It happened a few minutes after 7 p.m. on March 14. Inside Room 126 of the Peachtree City (Ga.) United Methodist Church, Preston A. passed his board of review and became an Eagle Scout. The moment wasn’t just monumental for Preston and his family.
It’s March, which means that the minds of many turn to college basketball as the NCAA hosts its annual championship tournament. This year, you can see an Eagle Scout in action on the court – Villanova’s star senior player, Josh Hart.
FOX’s new show, “ Kicking & Screaming ,” airing tonight at 8/9 Central, pairs survival experts with Average Joe-types to see how they fare when facing wild animals, hunger and extreme weather in the jungles of Fiji. Except competitor Terry Fossum — a businessman, author and public speaker — isn’t your typical Average Joe.
Four meetings with cabinet secretaries yielded four strong responses to Scouting and the ways in which it prepares young people for life. It’s safe to say that, thanks to the 10 terrific Report to the Nation delegates who represent 2.3 million outstanding youth participants nationwide, the BSA’s approval rating is high.
Though a youth’s time as a Scout typically doesn’t extend past age 18 (or 21 if you’re a Venturer), the Scouting program is something that sticks with its members far beyond their childhood years. Eagle Scout Alex C. explained this phenomena in an article he wrote for the Odyssey Online where he shares the “5…
Ron K., an Eagle Scout from North Carolina, opened the lunch by saying grace. “Please let us have fun in Washington,” he said, “but do our business, too.” On Monday, in a special dining room deep inside the Pentagon, the Report to the Nation delegates had lunch with Gen.
Dr. Thomas Starzl, an Eagle Scout who performed the first-ever liver transplant in 1963 and pioneered transplant surgery and anti-rejection drugs, died on March 4 at age 90. Dr. Starzl’s research advanced organ transplantation from a risky and rare procedure to a surgery accessible to patients in need.
There was a moment when Dr. David Hunt worried he was losing his audience’s attention as he discussed his job studying bones at the Smithsonian Natural History museum. He had shown the Scouts and Venturers a femur fractured by a 50-caliber bullet in the Civil War.
Eagle Scouts are getting older, and that’s not a bad thing. In 1949, the average age of Eagle Scouts was 14.6 years. In 2016, that number was 17.35 years old . (That’s 17 years, 127.75 days.) I see two explanations. First, young men are staying in Scouting longer, meaning they’re enjoying the program and not feeling…
Bennett earned Scouting’s highest honor in 2015 as a member of Troop 216 of the Fort Worth-based Longhorn Council. The great power of the Eagle Scout badge comes with great responsibility. Once you first wear it, you never really take it off.
Before Josh Hart wore the navy and white uniform of Villanova, he wore the khaki and green uniform of Scouting. Finding time to be a student, a Scout and an athlete wasn’t easy. Josh even dropped out of Scouting for a couple of years, but he returned to finish what he started — and to fulfill…
Utah’s state motto is “Industry,” but I’m going to propose a new one: “Home of Eagle Scouts.” That’s because no state produced more Eagle Scouts in 2016 than Utah. Thanks in large part to the strong support Scouting receives from the LDS church there, 5,664 young men became Eagle Scouts in Utah in 2016.
When Villanova Wildcat Josh Hart steps on the court this March for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, he’ll be doing so as a young man who has already achieved something great. No, we’re not talking about how Josh and his team became national champions when they won the tournament during Josh’s junior year in 2016.
There were 55,186 Eagle Scouts in 2016. That’s the fourth-largest Eagle Scout class ever — surpassed only by 2012, 2010 and 2013 — and represents a 1.5 percent increase over 2015. Just think about that for a sec: 55,186 Eagle Scouts. Each one has his own story of the challenging but rewarding journey to Scouting’s highest honor.
Sorry, Captain Kirk, but these days, Scouts and former Scouts are the ones who “boldly go where no man has gone before.” That’s why it’s fitting for the BSA to introduce a new merit badge : Exploration. The badge — the 137th on the BSA’s list of currently available merit badges — celebrates the spirit of adventure that…
Rex Tillerson will be extremely busy traveling the world as secretary of state. But he’ll still take time to recognize his fellow Eagle Scouts. The U.S. Department of State, under the leadership of Distinguished Eagle Scout Tillerson, announced it will continue the department’s long-standing tradition of sending congratulatory letters to Eagle Scouts.
Story contributed by Kevin V. Hunt, a Scouting historian, author, camp director, blogger and speaker I have been to a hundred or more Eagle courts of honor in my day, but I’ve never seen a parade of flags at the entry of a ceremony until I arrived at one unique court of honor in Mesa…
The question is tantalizing for fans of Scouting and sports: Is there a correlation between the number of Eagle Scouts in a team’s home city and that team’s odds of winning the Super Bowl? The short answer? Yes, the team with more Eagle Scouts in its hometown is more likely to win the Super Bowl…
We're back! The holidays and several business trips impacted my desire to update the blog regularly over the last few months (OK, it was the video games...the holidays always bring new video games releases and purchases...), but it's a new year and new scouting adventures are beginning, so expect more to come.
For Ellen Colson, a second grade student at Little Valley Elementary School, getting through an average day at school requires an effort that is anything but average. As a child with special needs, she faces challenges many of the other students in her school do not.
On a July day in New Jersey, Daniel Summerhays got the news he’d long been dreaming of. By finishing third in the 2016 PGA Championship, one of golf’s four major tournaments, Summerhays had qualified for the 2017 Masters Tournament. That major — the most-watched event in golf — is still a few months away (April 6 to…
Just a couple of years ago, D.J. Tialavea was working two jobs and sleeping on the floor of a friend’s house. Now he’s a tight end for the Atlanta Falcons, who will face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
David R. has landed four different jobs just because he’s an Eagle Scout. One time, after the words “Eagle Scout” were uttered, “the manager went right to, ‘what will it take for you to work for me?'” he says. You’ve heard that before, right?
It’s an event so popular it requires a waiting list. Once every year, Scouts get a chance to earn merit badges in classes taught by real midshipmen on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. At the STEM Merit Badge Jamboree earlier this month, midshipmen — many of whom are Eagle Scouts — led…
Scouting has played an integral role in the life of 17-year-old Will H. of the Mason-Dixon Council . Will’s involvement in the program at a young age introduced him to the importance of leadership, service, and hard work. Today, he credits Scouting for leading him to discover his life calling.
Photo by Bill Torpy Lamar Wallace is 105 years old. That likely makes him the oldest living Eagle Scout. Officials at the National Eagle Scout Association tell me Wallace is the oldest Eagle they know about, but NESA doesn’t have Eagle Scout birth dates before 1983.
In 2007, six Wolf Scouts from Indiana sat at a cafeteria table and took a photo together. In 2017, those same six Scouts - now all Eagles - gathered at the same table to remake that photo - silly poses and expressions included.
Late December brings a spate of year-in-review lists. While overused, they are a handy way to recap the year that was. One way to look back on 2016 in Scouting is by seeing which Bryan on Scouting blog posts were most popular.
Rex Tillerson, a Distinguished Eagle Scout, Silver Buffalo Award recipient and past national president of the Boy Scouts of America, has been nominated to be the nation's next secretary of state. Tillerson, upon Senate confirmation, would be the latest Distinguished Eagle Scout to reach a cabinet position.
Sometimes, it's like night and day. You look at a spot of land before an Eagle Scout candidate has completed his project there. Then you look at that exact same spot after the project is done. The transformation is so stunning that you're tempted to ask whether you have entered a parallel universe.
John H. Glenn Jr., the first American to orbit the Earth, a Silver Buffalo Award recipient and the father of an Eagle Scout, has died. He was 95. Glenn was never a Scout, but his son, David, is an Eagle Scout.
From the start, the Eagle Scout court of honor for Brian O'Rourke III in Cambridge, Mass., was destined to be special. Brian's grandfather, Glen McLaughlin, traveled all the way from California to be there. There was a slideshow that had many in tears.
It must've been pretty dusty in the room when Tom Lalor read the poem he had written for his stepson Jonathan. Everyone in the whole place got a little misty-eyed. Lalor read his poem, which you can see below, at Troop 251's Eagle Scout court of honor in Larimer, Pa.
Updated for 2017 Why is the symbol for the Alumnus of the Year Award an acorn? Because the individuals who receive this award at the national, council and — beginning next year — the regional level plant seeds for trees under which they may never sit.
The completion of any journey toward Eagle is commendable, but when a young man overcomes additional challenges to become an Eagle Scout, it transcends even the extraordinary and becomes truly inspiring. Such is the case for Scout Jack S., who managed to finish his Eagle Scout project and Eagle journey while battling cancer.
At certain critical points in a Boy Scout's journey through the program, he's asked to stop and think. He looks back on where he's been and looks ahead to where he's going. We call it the board of review. The board of review is a chance for adults to talk with the Scout about what…
Story contributed by Taylor Olmstead, Marketing Coordinator at the Atlanta Area Council David S. is an Eagle Scout from Johns Creek, Georgia. But you probably know him as the dancing Equipment Manager cheering on the Clemson Tigers from the sidelines.
