Today I heard a few personalities on my favorite national radio morning show briefly discuss the Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout Award. This conversation stayed on my mind all day and I really felt the need to tell people about what it is, the tremendous amount of work involved in earning the award and what it does for a young man as a person. Since I tend to write what I know, I am going to use my son's experience as the source of what you are about to read.
First, a legal disclaimer: This is only one Scout's results. Results may or may not be typical. I really can't tell you that every young man who starts out as a boy on the path to becoming an Eagle Scout will have fantastic results. I am, however, pretty confident that chances of a boy becoming a better man improve exponentially WITH an experience in scouting as opposed to not having that experience.
Here is the story of my son:
When my son was 6 and in the first grade, he came to my classroom after school with the standard "Join Cub Scouts, it'll be the best fun you every had" flyer. Of course, he was all gung-ho to join with all of his little first grade buddies. So I thought, "Sure, why not?" I was naïve and thought "Good activity for his dad and him." "Quality time for the boys." And I'm not going to lie, I also thought "I can get some papers graded while they are off doing Cub Scout crap."
Well, it didn't quite turn out that way. Although my husband is a pretty good dad, he just wasn't one to go do organized activity stuff. So I took my son (Cody) to his first meeting. OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! So many rambunctious little first grade boys RUNNING around the meeting room! (GASP!) Now, at the time, I was a second-grade teacher, and very familiar with the typical behavior of little boys. However, I was unaccustomed to seeing my son really cut loose with all these other little fellers with wild abandon. I tried as quickly as I could to get what information I needed and get out of there. Finally, I couldn't stand it. I decided if Cody was going to act like he was acting right now, this may have been a horrible idea. I started to get him and bolt for the door.
Then, something happened that changed both of our lives and I will never forget it. The guy in charge very sweetly told me Cody was acting perfectly fine and asked us to please stay. I often think back to that very second in time and realize how much different raising my son would have been if I had decided to walk out at that moment. I am so thankful to that man for stopping me.
So Cody became a Tiger Cub on that fateful September evening in 2000. There were the usual outings, field trips to local state parks, family camp-outs (for us, that meant Mom & Cody camp outs), a few fundraisers, and finally a week of cub camp in late July. Cub camp was a day camp, and we fortunately just happen to live very near a beautiful BSA Camp. Cub camp was held there, and on the fourth day of camp, we were allowed to spend the night.
A little fun side-story about cub camp: Cody and I happened to wake up very early in the morning and decided to venture out for a little walk. All the tents were packed together into a shady grove. As we were trying to sneak through all those tents, we heard various snores coming from a tent here and a tent there, back and forth. We were both trying so hard not to laugh at the see-saw sound of the snores produced by our camping friends. It's just a wonderful memory that I have and was probably the first time I realized that Cody's sense of humor was similar to my own.
So, we did the Cub Scout thing for the next four and one-half years. This period of time is when my son established friendships that remain strong and solid to this very day. The boys with which Cody became close during his Cub Scout experiences remain his closest friends even now that they are out of school and working full-time jobs or in college. These lifelong friends are the guys you will find sitting on a bench outside a small local donut shop on any given Friday evening. They aren't out looking for stuff to steal or drugs to do. They are content to just hang out together and catch up with each other. These friendships were formed when these boys were 6, 7, and 8 years old. These boys had parents who were willing to spend time with them in a worthwhile activity. Most of what they have in common can be traced back to Cub Scouts. They learned and grew together and forged a mighty strong bond. So the first thing my son gained from Scouting, was a solid foundation for a network of good, reliable friends. A kind of support system.
Well, those boys grew a little older, as boys tend to do. They became middle-school students, and also shortly thereafter, Boy Scouts. They started going to summer camp where they stayed an entire week, nights and all. Various parents took turns hanging out in camp to assist their Scoutmaster. While there, they had the opportunity to earn merit badges at stations, they got to go swimming, fishing, canoeing, and performed skits together for other troops who were also at camp during their designated week. They gained a little more independence each year during their scouting experiences. We were incredibly blessed with a Scoutmaster who truly took an interest in helping each boy to learn about all sorts of things from astronomy to woodcraft to just being a good person in general. He insisted on good behavior and for the most part, those boys were more than happy to deliver what he expected because they knew he cared about them and they respected him for it. How many guys would use their week of vacation to go and camp several miles from any real civilization with a group of pre-teen boys and no electric, no comforts of home, in early July??? Those boys could never, ever deny that their Scoutmaster cared about them and truly wanted to help them learn. So the next thing my son gained from Scouting was confidence in himself, an ability to problem-solve on his own and to be self-sufficient. In addition, he learned from his Scoutmaster's example that giving of one's time and knowledge to help others is one of the best blessings a person can bestow upon another.
Finally, those boys made it to high school and were very busy trying to make sure they were getting requirements completed in order to reach the next rank, with the ultimate goal being Eagle Scout. Their little troop consisted of maybe 6 or 7 boys at this point. There were lots more campouts, a few more fundraisers, and planning for next summer's camp. The Scoutmaster would meet individually with each boy as he prepared to move up in rank. The group did a 50-mile kayak trip over a period of 5 days. they participated in several organized hikes being conducted at some of the nearby state parks. They watched older members become Eagle Scouts and began to think of their own possibilities of attaining the coveted rank. They each began to think about what they could do for their own community service project and began to do some serious planning while finishing up their merit badge requirements. It was during this period of time in the Boy Scouts that my son learned to take on more responsibility for himself. He learned to work as a team with his fellow Scouts to help each of them achieve a common, yet individual goal. This was the period of time when Cody really seemed to put down deep, deep roots in his community. Maybe it was from all of the community service projects in which he participated, or maybe from meeting so many community leaders as a result of those projects, Likely a combination of the two. This is where networking for him really began, in my opinion. Networking that would help him in the future as far as figuring out a career path, deciding whether and where to attend college, and this networking that would ultimately help him in finding a good, stable job. That's a pretty huge benefit that you can't even fathom when your son is 6 years old and wants to join Cub Scouts! You don't even consider that they are going to meet people and learn to do things that are going to carry them through life and help them to become respectable men. When they're 6, you're kind of just hoping you can be a good parent and the kid will idolize you for having a good time with him. At that point, a parent can't even envision that this tiny person is going to grow up and not need constant supervision. As a parent of a 21 year-old, I'm here to tell you this: they ARE going to grow up someday,
Finally, Cody made it to the Eagle Scout project: The crowning achievement in a Boy Scout's career. For Cody's project, he decided to map and catalog a nearby cemetery, organize the information into a spreadsheet with an index and a digital copy for the local genealogical society. He went through all of the steps that I listed in Part One of my Eagle Scout blog posts. This project took the better part of a year. During that year, he learned to contact a stranger in order to begin the process, he learned to present himself in a professional manner, he learned to "sell" an idea to another person and to put some serious thought into planning a project from start to finish. He learned to find people to help him and to manage those people. He learned that sometimes it's tough to get a group of people to be available at the same time. He learned what it is to commit to something and follow through on it, and he also learned that sometimes its tough to stick with a commitment, but it's always worth it in the end.
This isn't my most eloquent writing, but it's perhaps my most important because I want other people to know what my family gained from Scouting. There is so much more than what you see on the surface. I was far from a perfect parent. I had no idea what I was doing. But I am eternally grateful to the guidance that the activities in which my son participated as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout gave to both him and me. I made very good friends and established a wonderful support system through Scouting, just as much as Cody did.
As I look at my hard-working Eagle Scout son today, I am both tremendously proud and humbled. His dad and I cannot take full credit for the responsible adult that he has become. I owe a huge debt of gratitude that I can never repay to the his Scoutmaster and Mrs. Scoutmaster and his Cubmaster, in addition to the other parents who had boys in Troop 39 with Cody. The best I can do is to honor them by sharing this story of what the process of becoming a Cub Scout, Boy Scout and finally, Eagle Scout involves and what it really does for boys on their way to adulthood.
Here is an awesome link with some interesting little factoids about Scouts: Scouting Statistics
First, a legal disclaimer: This is only one Scout's results. Results may or may not be typical. I really can't tell you that every young man who starts out as a boy on the path to becoming an Eagle Scout will have fantastic results. I am, however, pretty confident that chances of a boy becoming a better man improve exponentially WITH an experience in scouting as opposed to not having that experience.
Here is the story of my son:
When my son was 6 and in the first grade, he came to my classroom after school with the standard "Join Cub Scouts, it'll be the best fun you every had" flyer. Of course, he was all gung-ho to join with all of his little first grade buddies. So I thought, "Sure, why not?" I was naïve and thought "Good activity for his dad and him." "Quality time for the boys." And I'm not going to lie, I also thought "I can get some papers graded while they are off doing Cub Scout crap."
Well, it didn't quite turn out that way. Although my husband is a pretty good dad, he just wasn't one to go do organized activity stuff. So I took my son (Cody) to his first meeting. OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! So many rambunctious little first grade boys RUNNING around the meeting room! (GASP!) Now, at the time, I was a second-grade teacher, and very familiar with the typical behavior of little boys. However, I was unaccustomed to seeing my son really cut loose with all these other little fellers with wild abandon. I tried as quickly as I could to get what information I needed and get out of there. Finally, I couldn't stand it. I decided if Cody was going to act like he was acting right now, this may have been a horrible idea. I started to get him and bolt for the door.
Then, something happened that changed both of our lives and I will never forget it. The guy in charge very sweetly told me Cody was acting perfectly fine and asked us to please stay. I often think back to that very second in time and realize how much different raising my son would have been if I had decided to walk out at that moment. I am so thankful to that man for stopping me.
So Cody became a Tiger Cub on that fateful September evening in 2000. There were the usual outings, field trips to local state parks, family camp-outs (for us, that meant Mom & Cody camp outs), a few fundraisers, and finally a week of cub camp in late July. Cub camp was a day camp, and we fortunately just happen to live very near a beautiful BSA Camp. Cub camp was held there, and on the fourth day of camp, we were allowed to spend the night.
A little fun side-story about cub camp: Cody and I happened to wake up very early in the morning and decided to venture out for a little walk. All the tents were packed together into a shady grove. As we were trying to sneak through all those tents, we heard various snores coming from a tent here and a tent there, back and forth. We were both trying so hard not to laugh at the see-saw sound of the snores produced by our camping friends. It's just a wonderful memory that I have and was probably the first time I realized that Cody's sense of humor was similar to my own.
So, we did the Cub Scout thing for the next four and one-half years. This period of time is when my son established friendships that remain strong and solid to this very day. The boys with which Cody became close during his Cub Scout experiences remain his closest friends even now that they are out of school and working full-time jobs or in college. These lifelong friends are the guys you will find sitting on a bench outside a small local donut shop on any given Friday evening. They aren't out looking for stuff to steal or drugs to do. They are content to just hang out together and catch up with each other. These friendships were formed when these boys were 6, 7, and 8 years old. These boys had parents who were willing to spend time with them in a worthwhile activity. Most of what they have in common can be traced back to Cub Scouts. They learned and grew together and forged a mighty strong bond. So the first thing my son gained from Scouting, was a solid foundation for a network of good, reliable friends. A kind of support system.
Well, those boys grew a little older, as boys tend to do. They became middle-school students, and also shortly thereafter, Boy Scouts. They started going to summer camp where they stayed an entire week, nights and all. Various parents took turns hanging out in camp to assist their Scoutmaster. While there, they had the opportunity to earn merit badges at stations, they got to go swimming, fishing, canoeing, and performed skits together for other troops who were also at camp during their designated week. They gained a little more independence each year during their scouting experiences. We were incredibly blessed with a Scoutmaster who truly took an interest in helping each boy to learn about all sorts of things from astronomy to woodcraft to just being a good person in general. He insisted on good behavior and for the most part, those boys were more than happy to deliver what he expected because they knew he cared about them and they respected him for it. How many guys would use their week of vacation to go and camp several miles from any real civilization with a group of pre-teen boys and no electric, no comforts of home, in early July??? Those boys could never, ever deny that their Scoutmaster cared about them and truly wanted to help them learn. So the next thing my son gained from Scouting was confidence in himself, an ability to problem-solve on his own and to be self-sufficient. In addition, he learned from his Scoutmaster's example that giving of one's time and knowledge to help others is one of the best blessings a person can bestow upon another.
Finally, those boys made it to high school and were very busy trying to make sure they were getting requirements completed in order to reach the next rank, with the ultimate goal being Eagle Scout. Their little troop consisted of maybe 6 or 7 boys at this point. There were lots more campouts, a few more fundraisers, and planning for next summer's camp. The Scoutmaster would meet individually with each boy as he prepared to move up in rank. The group did a 50-mile kayak trip over a period of 5 days. they participated in several organized hikes being conducted at some of the nearby state parks. They watched older members become Eagle Scouts and began to think of their own possibilities of attaining the coveted rank. They each began to think about what they could do for their own community service project and began to do some serious planning while finishing up their merit badge requirements. It was during this period of time in the Boy Scouts that my son learned to take on more responsibility for himself. He learned to work as a team with his fellow Scouts to help each of them achieve a common, yet individual goal. This was the period of time when Cody really seemed to put down deep, deep roots in his community. Maybe it was from all of the community service projects in which he participated, or maybe from meeting so many community leaders as a result of those projects, Likely a combination of the two. This is where networking for him really began, in my opinion. Networking that would help him in the future as far as figuring out a career path, deciding whether and where to attend college, and this networking that would ultimately help him in finding a good, stable job. That's a pretty huge benefit that you can't even fathom when your son is 6 years old and wants to join Cub Scouts! You don't even consider that they are going to meet people and learn to do things that are going to carry them through life and help them to become respectable men. When they're 6, you're kind of just hoping you can be a good parent and the kid will idolize you for having a good time with him. At that point, a parent can't even envision that this tiny person is going to grow up and not need constant supervision. As a parent of a 21 year-old, I'm here to tell you this: they ARE going to grow up someday,
Finally, Cody made it to the Eagle Scout project: The crowning achievement in a Boy Scout's career. For Cody's project, he decided to map and catalog a nearby cemetery, organize the information into a spreadsheet with an index and a digital copy for the local genealogical society. He went through all of the steps that I listed in Part One of my Eagle Scout blog posts. This project took the better part of a year. During that year, he learned to contact a stranger in order to begin the process, he learned to present himself in a professional manner, he learned to "sell" an idea to another person and to put some serious thought into planning a project from start to finish. He learned to find people to help him and to manage those people. He learned that sometimes it's tough to get a group of people to be available at the same time. He learned what it is to commit to something and follow through on it, and he also learned that sometimes its tough to stick with a commitment, but it's always worth it in the end.
This isn't my most eloquent writing, but it's perhaps my most important because I want other people to know what my family gained from Scouting. There is so much more than what you see on the surface. I was far from a perfect parent. I had no idea what I was doing. But I am eternally grateful to the guidance that the activities in which my son participated as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout gave to both him and me. I made very good friends and established a wonderful support system through Scouting, just as much as Cody did.
As I look at my hard-working Eagle Scout son today, I am both tremendously proud and humbled. His dad and I cannot take full credit for the responsible adult that he has become. I owe a huge debt of gratitude that I can never repay to the his Scoutmaster and Mrs. Scoutmaster and his Cubmaster, in addition to the other parents who had boys in Troop 39 with Cody. The best I can do is to honor them by sharing this story of what the process of becoming a Cub Scout, Boy Scout and finally, Eagle Scout involves and what it really does for boys on their way to adulthood.
Here is an awesome link with some interesting little factoids about Scouts: Scouting Statistics
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