Eagle Bound

My kids have been in Scouting their whole lives. My oldest son joined Tiger Cubs in 1992 and has participated - at varying levels - since then. This weekend he wrapped up (mostly) his Eagle Scout service project.

Boy Scouting elicits a wide array of reactions from people: positive, negative, ambivalent, and disparaging. But whatever your feelings, the fact remains that the Eagle Scout service project is unique among Boy Scout requirements.

The Eagle project is somewhat analogous to a PhD dissertation in that the scout must independently think up a meaningful and substantive project that benefits the community (not Scouting), prepare and have approved a written plan, marshal the necessary resources (both money and labor), carry it out, and then write a detailed report documenting the effort including lessons-learned. In this day and age when many people believe kiddy team sports represents the zenith of extracurricular achievement, successfully getting your Eagle service project signed-off is a singular demonstration of initiative, perseverance, and accomplishment.

Unlike most things in A-'s life, I've been mostly hands-off on his Eagle project. This could be why he's just now getting it done despite having had 4 years to do so. But this past Saturday and Sunday, he and I along with a dozen or so other scouts erected about 450 deer protection cages for some trees planted by the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks in a riparian buffer zone along a tributary of the Patapsco River. Aside from paying for everyone's lunch, I just showed up and did what he told me. He has about 65 trees left to cage because the crew ran out of supplies. This he'll do this coming Saturday. Once his final project report is approved, he'll have completed all his Eagle requirements.

A- has easily spent well more than 100 hours of his own time (probably closer to 200 hours) planning, writing grant proposals, working with the county, soliciting donations, calling people, working in the field, and dealing with delays and other unplanned events. As a parent, it's been very gratifying to watch this project unfold.
K-