A fun day of playing in the backyard with friends nearly turned deadly when a young girl walked over a septic tank lid that came loose and dropped her into the open tank.
A Scout was recognized for his heroism and bravery for saving his friend (photo: Courtney Lamdin)
Scout Quinnlan K., of the Boy Scouts of America Green Mountain Council, immediately reached out and grabbed his friend, keeping her from slipping further down into the cold, raw sewage that had become like quicksand as it pulled her down.
“I thought I was gonna die,” the girl said. “I felt a pipe in the water, and I tried to put my foot on it, but my foot kept slipping.”
Quinnlan thought back to first aid training he had received in Cub Scouts to help him remain calm and reassure his friend while her brother ran inside to get more help.
He held on tightly as his friend struggled in the septic tank, and when help arrived, it took two adults to pull the girl free.
“I hugged my mom, and I think all I could say for the rest of the night was like, ‘Quinn saved my life,’” she said.
You might be familiar with the Little Free Libraries that have popped up in communities all over the country, but have you heard about something called a Little Free Pantry?
This Scout installed a Little Free Pantry for his Eagle project (photo: Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
A Little Free Pantry is stocked with food items as well as some toiletries. Anyone can donate items, and anyone who needs the items can access them at any time.
Jack B., an Eagle Scout candidate from the Boy Scouts of America Hawkeye Area Council, decided to install the pantry in his community to help fight food insecurity.
“It’s not one that I want people to worry about,” Jack said. “I think this really encourages just to conserve and keep the idea in mind that you need to give back.”
To learn more about Jack’s Eagle Scout project, be sure to read the full article in The Gazette.
When thieves stole the orange trees from a local church, a group of Boy Scouts stepped in to help.
Scouts replanted trees stolen from a church by thieves (photo: CBS Sacramento)
“Our first response was, ‘How can we help?'” said Scout Orion P.
The church was growing the orange trees so that it could provide an always-fresh supply of fruit to a local food pantry, which made the theft all the more disappointing.
“If something is a setback, you get back up, you dust yourself off, you climb over it, and you keep moving,” said Scout RJ S.
To see more about the Good Turn from these Scouts from the Boy Scouts of America Golden Empire Council, you can watch the full story from CBS Sacramento.
A Boy Scout looking to become an Eagle found a way to accomplish his goal by helping an actual bald eagle.
An Eagle Scout candidate helped a bald eagle for his project. (photo: Moultrie News)
Jahquan M., a Scout in the Boy Scouts of America Coastal Carolina Council, was in search of an Eagle Scout project when the option came up to provide a new home for a disabled bald eagle.
The bald eagle, named “Fowler,” had been found two years prior with severe injuries that made him unable to fly. The eagle was taken to the Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky in Louisville, where he received rehabilitation and was eventually transferred to a permanent home at the Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site Wildlife Exhibit.
The enclosure that Jahquan built for the bald eagle provides Fowler with a view of the marsh and the nearby Ashley River. Other bald eagles in the area have also begun communicating with Fowler.
“It’s fitting that Eagles rescue eagles,” said Ben Pearce, Jahquan’s Eagle Scout Coach. “Never has there been a more appropriate Eagle Scout Service Project.”
“The completion of this project is a tremendous benefit to the park, to the community, and to the rescued bald eagle it permits us to provide a permanent home for,” said Rob Powell, manager of Charles Towne Landing. “It provides an opportunity for our visitors to see this great American symbol up close and personal, and Jahquan should be very proud of his accomplishment.”
To learn more about Jahquan’s Eagle project, be sure to read the full story in the Moultrie News.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Jahquan, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
Schoolchildren learn in different ways, and sometimes, their success in the classroom may hinge on something as simple as their comfort in the actual learning space. As teachers look for innovative ways to give schoolchildren a more interactive, more effective learning space, they need options that sometimes just don’t exist in traditional classrooms.
Leave it to a Boy Scout to find a way to be helpful, friendly, courteous, and kind to some of the teachers and students in his town. Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts around the nation complete millions of hours of service for their communities every year, and many of those hours are provided in service to local schools.
Scouts built tables to help students at a local school (photo: WKTR News)
For 17-year-old Will C., a Scout in the Boy Scouts of America Tidewater Council, finding a way to help a school in his community was at the core of his Eagle Scout project.
In the process of searching for something that would make a great project, Will was talking with a principal at a local school, and the two discussed the possibility of adding mobile tables to some of the classes.
These mobile tables could give schoolchildren an opportunity to sit or stand during their lessons, helping the students to better channel their energy.
“So many children have a hard time concentrating these days, so we really want them to feel comfortable…and if you want stand that’s great,” said school principal Beth Bianchi. “Gives them a chance to wiggle–get the wiggles out.”
Will went to work planning and executing the construction of tables for the schoolchildren to improve their learning experience, and his project was a resounding success.
Nate Wallace, a student at the school, saw the new tables and said, “I would rather stand than sit because standing really gives you more energy, more thinking thought.”
The tables also offer additional storage space for teachers who need it.
To learn more about how Will’s Eagle project helped to make a difference for the teachers and schoolchildren in his community, be sure to see the full story from WTKR News.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Will, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
Twelve-year old Scout Frank C. has suffered from desmoid tumors his entire life. The tumors have kept him in near constant pain for years, and now, the terminally ill young man has been put on hospice care. Even so, Frank hasn’t let his disease stop him from experiencing life.
Frank and his fellow Scouts on their ski trip (photo: ABC News)
ABC News shared the inspirational story of how Frank’s Scout leader, Ron Beaulieu, knowing that it would be nearly impossible for Frank to join his fellow Scouts on a troop ski trip, reached out to a non-profit group, Adaptive Adventures, that makes sports like skiing accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Adaptive Adventures made it possible for Frank to use a bi-ski, which is a device that allowed him to be seated over a pair of skis. He could use his body to steer the bi-ski while Linda Tomsevics, director of Adaptive Adventures and an avid skier, stayed connected to the bi-ski to help ensure Frank’s safety.
Frank’s family and his fellow Boy Scouts all made the trip to be there to ski alongside Frank.
“We expected one, maybe two or three runs if it went really well,” said Frank’s mom, Kathrine. “He went down around a dozen times, and he had the biggest smile the entire time.”
Tomsevics described some of the moments while she and Frank rode the ski lift that day.
“More than once he just hung his head over and looked at me right in the eyes and said, ‘I really appreciate what you’ve done for me,’” she recalled. “I just thought, ‘The grace of this child,’ … knowing what he’s going through.”
“He’d hang his head back and he’d close his eyes and I’d say, ‘Frank, are you OK?’ and he’d say, ‘This is perfect. It feels great to just close my eyes and feel the wind on my face,’” she added.
“A lot of his smiles recently have been for others, so that we’re not sad, but yesterday was just all for him,” said Kathrine, Frank’s mother. “I saw true, happy smiles.”
“He loved that his fellow scouts and family were right there next to him going down,” she added. “He was just so happy for himself.”
The path toward Eagle can be a real struggle for some Scouts. Indeed, a giant helping of perseverance is often necessary for a Scout to push through and finish all of the requirements for Eagle.
Nicholas earned the rank of Eagle Scout. (photo: Jerry Carino, Asbury Park Press)
Some Scouts also face great challenges on their path. For Scout Nicholas M. of the Boy Scouts of America Jersey Shore Council, the challenges began before he was even born. Nicholas suffered a stroke while still in the womb, and, while it makes some of his life’s tasks a little more complicated, it hasn’t kept the young man from earning the rank of Eagle Scout.
Nicholas serves as an inspiration to the people in his community and also to other Scouts seeking to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.
“He’s the walking embodiment of what an Eagle Scout should be,” said Jerome Townsend, a Boy Scouts of America district executive. “Watching Nicholas and the other scouts grow and develop has taught me to have patience. It teaches me that when I get up every day, I need to be a little bit better.”
Nicholas has lived a life of service. In fact, his mother says he has spent thousands of hours serving his community through a variety of projects with several different organizations. In particular, he likes to serve organizations that help animals.
For his Eagle Scout project, Nicholas built bat houses that are designed to house hundreds of bats. The houses have been installed in local park.
To learn more about this remarkable Eagle Scout who couldn’t be stopped by a pre-birth stroke or any of the other challenges he faced, be sure to see the whole story in the Asbury Park Press.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Nicholas, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
Dogged determination. It’s something every Eagle Scout candidate needs to be able to get through all of the challenges involved in reaching Scouting’s highest rank.
Of course, when a Scout’s Eagle project is designed for dogs, an extra serving of dogged determination sure does come in handy.
Scout Cooper O. and Brenna, a two-year-old rescue dog (photo: Caitlin Andrews)
Just ask, Eagle Scout candidate Cooper O., a dog lover from the Boy Scouts of America Daniel Webster Council who is faced with a pretty big challenge in the form of building not one, but two dog parks for his Eagle Scout project.
Growing up in a small town, Cooper has spent a lot of time at the town’s main park, but, like others in his community, he noticed that some of the pet owners who also enjoy the park don’t always do a good job of cleaning up after their precious pups.
“You’re responsible for your dog, and that’s a part of your dog,” he said. “You should take care of it, but people don’t.”
In thinking about how he might help solve the city’s problem, Cooper’s neighbor actually helped him hit on a solution when that neighbor mentioned that the town could benefit from a dog park.
Cooper knew immediately that a dog park would make a great Eagle Scout project, so he began the process of figuring out how to make it happen.
As he researched, he discovered that there might really be a benefit to constructing two dog parks – one for smaller dogs, and one for larger dogs.
To learn more about Cooper’s dogged determination to make his dog parks a reality, be sure to read the full article in the Concord Monitor.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Cooper, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
For new moms with a child in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), their world can be filled with uncertainty, fear, and huge amounts of stress.
Anyone who has had this experience or known someone who has gone through it can attest that every day presents challenges, and that the moments new moms are able to spend directly with their child are truly precious.
He built footstools to help new moms at the NICU to be more comfortable (photo: WISN News)
Scout Tony M., of the Boy Scouts of America Potawatomi Area Councilknew all to well what that experience was like. He watched his mother go through difficult times at the NICU when his younger brother was born.
It made a real impact on the young man.
So, when he was looking for an opportunity to give back to his community through his Eagle Scout project, Tony hit upon the idea of doing something that would help the same NICU that had been so good to his own family years before.
Tony knew that many of the new moms with children in the NICU would be facing a lot of discomfort, both mental and physical, and he decided to focus his project on helping to provide just a little more comfort for them.
The NICU had several rocking chairs that new moms would use when holding their children, but Tony thought of a way to make the experience even more comfortable for the new moms and their children.
For his Eagle Scout project, he provided the NICU with several hand-made wooden footstools that would allow new moms to put their feet up and sit more comfortably when they spent time with their children in the rocking chairs.
“Every time we use these stools, we’ll have a story to tell the mothers about someone wanting to give these stools to make them more comfortable and happy here,” said registered nurse Lori Kallin.
Tony’s mother, Jennifer, was also touched by her son’s project and proud of the work he had done.
“These moms, hundreds and hundreds of moms, are going to hold their children for the first time using something that my baby made,” she said.
To learn more about Tony’s inspiring, heartfelt project, be sure to check out the whole story from WISN News.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Tony, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
As winter really takes hold all across the country and cold temperatures become normal everywhere, Scout units in many locations begin participating in an annual event many call a Klondike Derby.
Scouts at the Klondike Derby. (photo: Gib Mathers/Powell Tribune)
A Klondike Derby is an opportunity for Scout patrols to hone their skills at various winter survival activities (first aid, sled construction and racing, outdoor winter cooking, snow cave building, etc.), and the cold temperatures add to the fun (and the difficulty) of completing those tasks.
Many of the skills events are preceded by a night of camping in the cold temperatures. Depending on the weekend and the part of the country where the Klondike Derby is taking place, some Scouts might camp in very cold, snowy conditions, while others might get more mild temperatures.
It’s something a lot of Scouts really look forward to each year.
Recently, Scouts in Wyoming and Scouts in Massachusetts were featured for their participation in Klondike Derbies.
In Wyoming, the Scouts simulated first-aid assistance for “victims” who might be found out in the remote wilderness with no easy access to help. The Scouts were tasked with locating these “victims” in the snowy woods, then finding ways to assist those individuals to safety.
“You can’t call 911,” said one Scout leader. “You can only work with what you have. You have to be creative.”
The Scouts use what is around them to build sleds and other devices to help complete the task.
Scouts carry a sled at the Klondike Derby (photo: Phyllis Booth/The Landmark)
In Massachusetts, the Scouts also practiced first-aid skills, along with shelter building and other problem-solving activities. Many of the events are timed, and Scouts must work together efficiently to accomplish their tasks quickly.
To learn more about these Klondike Derby events that take place in cold temperatures, be sure to read the full articles in the Powell Tribune and The Landmark.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
