Eagles in the News

Eagles Unite at Coast Guard Exhibit

The U.S. Coast Guard sponsored an exhibit at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree. It involved 106 former Scouts—70 who are Eagle Scouts—who played a large role in building and staffing the two-acre site.

The group assembled for an Eagle Scout photo in front of the Coast Guard portal. At that point, the moment became more memorable when the nearly 60 Eagles present raised their hands to form the Scout sign and spoke the Scout Oath and Scout Law.

By the last day of the jamboree, more than 70,000 Scouts and visitors had passed through the exhibit.

Eagle Scout Project Goes to the Dogs (and Cats)

Scott Krech wants to be a surgeon, so he was excited last year to do a surgery-related Eagle Scout leadership service project. He didn’t put anyone under the knife, however. Instead, he transformed a storage closet at the Animal House rescue shelter in Fort Collins, Colorado, into a surgical suite.

Originally, Krech had planned to build a storage shed, but when the Animal House staff suggested the surgery idea, he jumped at the opportunity. Besides learning how to estimate costs and secure donations, he learned how to hang doors and drywall, level cabinets, and work around challenges such as pipes that intruded into the space.

He also learned something that nearly every Eagle Scout candidate learns. “I didn’t know how much work it was going to be when I started out,” he told The Denver Post.

Eagle Scout Stories: Tales From the Trails of Scouting’s Highest Rank

The National Eagle Scout Association has joined with Harris Connect LLC, the nation’s largest producer of college directories, to create Eagle Scout Stories: Tales From the Trails of Scouting’s Highest Rank. Eagle Scouts will be invited by mail and e-mail to submit a photo and story for publication in this historic collection celebrating the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th Anniversary. Please call the number on your postcard to order your copy today!

Eagle Scouts who did not receive a postcard may call Harris Connect directly, toll-free, at 800-877-6554.

Eagle Project Does the (Hat) Trick

When a hockey player registers a hat trick (three goals in the same game), fans traditionally shower the ice with hats—hundreds of them, in fact.

As a hockey fan, Mike Behme often wondered what happens to all those hats. As a Scout, the Findlay, Pennsylvania, teen decided to find out. When he learned that the hats are tossed in the trash, Mike knew he had the makings of an Eagle Scout leadership service project.

Since early 2009, Mike has been working with the Pittsburgh Penguins to collect, clean, and redistribute hat-trick hats to charity. His Hat Tricks 4 Humanity project has collected nearly 3,700 hats—2,200 from five hat tricks at games, and another 1,500 from students at Mike’s school and other people who have learned about the project. While some of the hats had to be thrown away, most have been cleaned and distributed to children and adults in Pennsylvania, Costa Rica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The donated hats include everything from Penguins ball caps to winter hats to a Christmas-themed fedora.

Mike has long since reached his goal of collecting 2,500 hats, but he hasn’t quit. “Now it’s for charity work,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Knowing I can help people is a major reason I want to keep doing it.”

Eagle Scout Receives Rare Honor

Less than 5 percent of all Boy Scouts earn the Eagle Scout Award, making Scouting’s highest rank a rare honor. But one Scout, Eli Wittum, recently earned an even more uncommon honor: the Medal of Honor With Crossed Palms. Only a few hundred people have earned this award, which goes to Scouts who risk their lives to save another person.

Eli was swimming in the Yadkin River in Cooleemee, North Carolina, in May 2009 when he heard screams from up the river. Another teen, Marlo Porfirio Ramos, had been caught in fast-moving water and was unable to save himself. Eli dove under the water, pulled Marlo above the surface, and floated 200 feet down the river before he was able to grab a tree branch to stop their movement. With the help of nearby fisherman, he pulled Marlo out of the water, checked his pulse and breathing, and called for an ambulance.

Marlo was able to return to school a few days later. A few months later, Eli received the Medal of Honor With Crossed Palms.

Continuing a Family Tradition

Given that his father, grandfather, and brother all earned the Eagle Scout Award, there was no reason Brian Miller wouldn’t also become an Eagle Scout. Well, maybe one—Brian is blind.

A student at Philadelphia’s Overbrook School for the Blind, Brian could easily have settled for less than perfection. Instead, he persevered, reaching Scouting’s highest rank in January 2010. Brian told the Delaware County Daily Times that he drew much of his inspiration from other Eagle Scouts he encountered while working at Camp Ockanickon. “I could finally see the mountaintop,” he said. “It would take serious devotion, but I could do it, and I did.”

The Boy Scouts of America allows Scouts with permanent disabilities to complete alternate requirements for the Eagle Scout Award. Brian, however, needed only one accommodation. Since he couldn’t identify birds by sight, he learned to identify them by their songs, using a CD of bird songs from the National Audubon Society.

09/14/2009 (Holland, Michigan)   Read More >>

Leaving No Trace

Many Eagle Scout leadership service projects involve building something—a nature trail, park benches, or a memorial garden, for instance. Aaron Edgel’s project took the opposite approach. He and his 25 volunteers removed a collapsed water tower—all 10 tons of it—from the Sanctuary Woods Preserve near Holland, Michigan. Built in 1913, the tower collapsed in the 1960s and had lain in ruins ever since. Graffiti artists had decorated it, vandals had built fires around it, but nobody else had touched it—until Aaron came along.

Removing the tower, which took more than 400 hours, was only the culmination of Aaron’s work. He had to get approval from the local parks and fire departments and recruit businesses that could help cut the tower into Scout-sized pieces.

“I’ve learned that there is no simple way to do something like this,” Aaron told The Holland Sentinel. “I learned about leadership, and I’ve learned about getting permission.” He also learned that you can leave a legacy by leaving no trace.

08/05/2009 (Afghanistan)   Read More >>

Building for the Future in Afghanistan

The Eagle Scout trail has no end, and it leads to some surprising places. For Eagle Scout Dustin Koslowsky, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, that trail led to Afghanistan’s Panjshir province. There, as part of a U.S.-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), the Fort Worth, Texas, Eagle Scout has spent much of 2008 and 2009 building a school for girls.

A PRT engineer, Koslowsky oversaw the work of a local contractor and construction workers in building the eight-classroom Haish Saidqi Girls’ School. More than 500 girls, along with a handful of boys, will attend the school, which was dedicated on June 23, 2009.

The school represents a small step in the revival of the Afghan school system. Under the Taliban regime, girls were not allowed to attend school at all. Even today, only 30 percent of girls reach the fifth grade, compared to 56 percent of boys.

08/05/2009 (Calvert City, KY)   Read More >>

The Heart of an Eagle Scout

It might have been appropriate if Mitchell Overby had only reached the rank of Life Scout. After all, the Life badge would have served as a fitting reminder of the February 2008 heart transplant that saved the Calvert City, Kentucky, resident’s life.

Mitchell persevered, however, reaching Scouting’s highest rank in March 2009. For his Eagle Scout leadership service project, he collected supplies and prepared meals for the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville, Tennessee—the same facility where he and his family lived for six weeks after his transplant.

Now 18, Mitchell shows no signs of cutting back on his Scouting involvement. This summer, he worked at Camp Roy C. Manchester and served on the staff of his council’s National Youth Leadership Training course. He recently signed up as an assistant Scoutmaster in his home troop, Troop 422.

08/05/2009 (Spring Hill, FL)   Read More >>

The Lone Eagle Scout

Lone Scouting began in 1915 as a way for boys from remote areas to participate in Scouting. Although it seems like a throwback to earlier times, the program is still available. Recently, one Lone Scout—John V. Ricciardi of Spring Hill, Florida—became an Eagle Scout.

John has faced numerous health issues that prevented his full participation in Scouting, but they haven’t kept him from reaching Scouting’s highest rank. With that accomplishment behind him, John is already giving back to Scouting by helping a fellow Scout who has cerebral palsy earn his own Eagle Scout badge.

07/06/2009 (San Diego County)   Read More >>

Leading the Way in Water Conservation

In xeriscaping (pronounced zir-ə-skāp), water conservation drives what is planted. Minimizing grassy areas and maximizing the use of indigenous and drought-resistant plants are measures that help conserve water.

Despite its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, California’s San Diego County faces frequent droughts. To help fight this problem, a group of Eagle Scout candidates is re-landscaping Imperial Beach City Hall using water-saving xeriscaping techniques. Two Eagle projects have been completed at the site, with three more in the works.

“Leading by example and showing how easy and beautiful it is to create a water-sensitive landscape will hopefully inspire others to do the same,” said Troop 53’s Austin Allen, one of the first Scouts to complete his Eagle Scout service project at the site.

07/06/2009 (Lakeville, Minnesota)   Read More >>

One Good Turn Deserves Another

One day in August 2008, 48-year-old Eagle Scout Hap Stokes and his son, Charlie, 16, traveled to Colorado, where they climbed 14,259-foot Longs Peak. As they hiked down from the summit that afternoon, a vicious thunderstorm hit, threatening everyone on the mountain. Along the trail, the Stokeses encountered 21 stranded hikers. They stopped to treat several for hypothermia and then helped everyone leave the mountain safely.

When Eagle Scout Paul Corbin, an adult leader with Charlie’s Troop 268 in Lakeville, Minn., heard the story, he nominated the Stokeses for the BSA’s Medal of Merit, which was awarded last month.

06/17/2009 (Minneapolis)   Read More >>

To describe one Minnesota teenager as "one in a million" is an understatement – by half. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) today announced that Anthony Thomas, 16, of Lakeville, Minn., has been named the 2 millionth Eagle Scout since the first Eagle badge was awarded in 1912.