That room looks amazing! I especially love the word "HOPE" above the bed. How perfect for a Ronald McDonald house bedroom.

I am a proud mom tonight. :)

My rising 9th grade son just passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review! 3 years of working hard to earn 52 Merit Badges, serving in 6 leadership positions, and developing and implementing an Eagle-worthy service project finally paid off!

Congratulations!

Alum, that's fabulous! Congratulations to all of you!

Congrats alum! That's great news!

My son is heading to Camp McKee in Kentucky this weekend for a week. He'll be doing 5 merit badges there, 4 of them are Eagle required. I suggested that he focus on getting those required ones done and then he can do more fun ones while he works on his service projects.

My kid will be about 5 hours east of your son at Goshen in the mountains of VA during the same week. This is the BSA reservation that his troop usually attends although last year they went to Camp Barnhardt in NC and were introduced to the apparently delicious Cheerwine.

I don't think my son is planning to actually sleep or relax at Goshen as he officially signed up for 7 badges and is going to attempt to squeeze in an 8th. None are Eagle-required as he has all those. The potential 8th one has a lot of overlap with the 7th one so he is knocking out all the paperwork on both this week.

I took a peek at the Camp McKee website. It looks like a fun camp for the Scouts. I was curious if they had the same crazy out-of-order prereqs for certain badges the way Goshen does and they do. If your son is doing Fishing or EP MBs, I can PM you what the SM and I were laughing about tonight while waiting for the inquisition to end in the other room.

Another very proud mom of an Eagle Scout here!

He's doing Emergency Preparedness next week. One of the listed "prereqs" is 2c, which is creating a family emergency kit based on what he does in 2a and 2b (which will be done at camp)... so yes, the out of sequence prereqs is happening. And, of course, that's the book that I can't get my hands on. The gal at the scout store said that they are coming out with new books, in color (for $1 more each!) and that's why they are on back order til August.

This is the first year they are going to McKee. They usually go to Cole Canoe Base in Michigan. The older Scouts did Seabase in Florida last year. I expect they'll do that again in a few years, when another large group is old enough to go.

The EP 2c is exactly what amused us yesterday. I am going to the NCAC Scout Store today at 10 AM EST. Let me know if you need the book. Depending on where you live if I mailed it today from Northern VA, it should get there by Friday.

Goshen expects the Scouts to complete Req 9 of the Fishing Badge before they get to camp. This would be "Catch two different kinds of fish and identify them. Release at least one of them unharmed. Clean and cook another fish." If the Scout has never fished before, this step seems a lot easier said than done, especially the cleaning part. Fish are also a lot more prolific in the middle of the mountains at Goshen than they are in Northern VA.

My son's troop has 85 scouts so there are always enough boys to attend 3 different options: "regular" scout camp, local high adventure (in our area-Goshen's Lenhoksin), and then the triennial rotation of Philmont, Northern Tier, and Sea Base. This year, the trip is Philmont so next year will be NT. If a Scout is an OA member, he can go to high adventure at a much lower cost through OA than going through his troop.

What's Seabase?

It's swimming with the dolphins down in Florida somewhere. One of my brothers did it once. I'm sure there is much more to it than that, but that was what made him excited. The other attended Philmont once. They both went canoeing in the boundary waters of Minnesota once as well- is that Northern Tier?

-Proud sister of two Eagle scouts and former Girl Scout (though I never earned any high rank/ badges/awards)

http://www.bsaseabase.org/

Lots of different sea adventures from which a troop chooses their top 3 and then are assigned one of those 3.

Tonight our son became an Eagle. :) Thank you all for your support and opinions!

BOR or COH?

Congratulations to your son, Carnation!
Our son has certainly found achieving that rank as meant loads of self confidence...and admission to a distinctive fraternity of sorts. Eagle Scouts do look out for each other.;)
Here is Seabase's web site: http://www.bsaseabase.org/
It's a high adventure camp with the emphasis on water activities. We stopped by the base on Islamorada Key in June on our vacation in the Keys. That part is tiny, but there are additional facilities and activities on other islands. It sounds wonderful...ah, if I were 25 years younger...:rolleyes:

Congratulations Carnation! Your son has achieved something many of us are proud of! Wear THAT pin with pride, too!

Congrats to him and you!!

It hit me when showing my husband this thread...Carnation's decision to encourage her son to pursue a particular Boy Scout Troop is what started the entire discussion. Now he's a member of the truly elite group of men and soon-to-be-men who bear the rank of Eagle Scout! Things tend to come full-circle. Congratulations again...

Congratulations! I hope he thanked YOU for all of your support!

Our son had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor tonight. He is the youngest Scout in his troop's history to earn the Eagle. On to many, many Palms since he already has 60 badges at the ripe old age of 14.5.

Kudos to your son! (and a bunch to you, too!):D

Congratulations to you and your son, alum! He sounds like an outstanding teenager! :)

Congrats to your son, alum!!

Congratulations Alum!

congrats

My daughter received her Silver Award today at a large banquet for the Metro Detroit area. The really fun part was, two other Alpha Gams from my very small alumnae club also had daughters there receiving their Silver Awards! And, by "very small", I mean, we had about 6 paying members this year and 3 of us were there with our daughters. I guess we're raising them with the same ideals instilled in us!

Double posting because the Boy Scout Court of Honor was tonight. My son finally received his First Class which he had completed back in July but the paperwork was lost so he didn't actually receive it until tonight. He has one requirement left to qualify for his Scoutmaster conference and BOR for Star and that is doing CPR on a dummy. He did the whole First Aid badge at summer camp last year but they didn't have a dummy for them to demonstrate CPR with. Thankfully, the local fire station will do it for free with the Boy Scouts so my ex-husband is going to take him up there so he can finish up Star. Life will take him a while because he's slowing down significantly. However, he just turned 13 in March so he has time. He was getting kind of burned out from doing Tenderfoot-Star pretty much in 18 months time. If he wants to take a year to finish Life and another year or two for Eagle, I think that will be a fine pace for him. Besides, he left the tough ones for last.. the three Citizenships and Personal Fitness are sitting there waiting for him. He still needs Family Life, but that one shouldn't be too bad. He has one thing left to do for Camping of the list of physical things they need to do. He has canoed but needs to hike or rapel or snowshoe, etc. He's done everything else for camping. So, he basically needs to do 5 of the Eagle required still. He has 4 or 5 other merit badges so far. He's on a good pace, I think!

Congrats to your daughter and son for their respective achievements in Scouting. The Gold Award will be just around the corner for your daughter if she has the inclination to concentrate on it.

The ASMs who conduct my son's troop's New Scout Orientation for the crossed-over WebII parents discuss the value of earning Eagle Rank before the 3 G's take priority: Grades (many more AP classes in the last 2 years of high school), Gas (ie driver's license), and Girls. Too many boys will put off the Eagle Scout requirements until about 6 months before the deadline and it may be too late at that point unless they completely clear out their schedule. Your son is smart to outline a schedule.

The scheduling is so important. My kiddo will earn 14 palms by his 18th birthday if he remains involved. The Palms are relatively simple so this is not an impossibility. I am relieved that both children decided to earn the Gold Award/Eagle Scout relatively early in high school. It was one less thing to deal with when they were older. It's a resume-worthy accomplishment that is very noticible as most young teens don't have significant work experience. My daughter's Gold Award opened doors for some selective programs which upon completion provided experience for other competitive applications. It remains to be seen with the son as he is still young.

I think you'll find the Eagle will open doors for him as well, probably even more, because it is more well known than the Gold. Most of the boys in my son's troop earn their Eagle by 15. The sad part is, after a palm or two, most of them disappear so the troop always seems to be very young. Crowd control becomes more difficult as it's usually the older boys who balance out the younger, very active, boys.

Wow, Dee, congratulations on both! :) And alum, your son sounds super-motivated!

Our troop has about 85 boys total. Like most troops, there are fewer high school boys vs. little guys. However since the troop is large, there is a critical mass of older boys so that the ones on the fence about remaining tend to do so as plenty of their friends are still involved.

I have no doubt that being an Eagle Scout will help my son in his initial endeavors. He just hasn't had the opportunity to use it yet.

I may have said this before, but lots of people around here refer to as Wings Before Wheels. In other words, no Eagle, no driver's license.

I've got two cadets in my CAP squadron that will be testing shortly for the General Carl A. Spaatz exam. I'm proud of these two cadets, having seen them progress from 'mosquito wings' (cadet airman) to double diamond (cadet lieutenant colonel). And I fully expect to see them put on their third and final diamond when they pass their test this summer!

On the other hand, I recently completed Level IV of CAP's senior member professional development program; once it's approved, I'll be earning the Paul E. Garber Award. A little over a year time-in grade before I pin on the grade of Major (I'm currently a Captain) and another four years before topping out at lieutenant colonel!

Robert Kaufmann now has a line of Girl Scout fabric designs. http://www.robertkaufman.com/fabrics...ng_collections. His fabrics are found in quilt shops. The BSA Scout Shops never did carry the BSA fabric.

I don't like the GSUSA designs as much as I liked the BSA fabric. For one, there is nothing devoted to the Studio 2B-aged girl (aka Cadettes/Seniors). Even more disappointing (since RK did an Eagle Scout motif), no design that depicts the Gold Award.

I just saw this thread for the first time and now I'm excited!

My sister and I are both Silver and Gold Award Girl Scouts and my brother is an Eagle Scout.

One of my grandlittles is also a Gold Award- unfortunately, we're kinda hard to find these days.

My daughter has started thinking about her Gold Award project. She is thinking something with a homeless shelter, but she also wants to ask her principal if there's anything that could benefit the school. Because some of her community service/extracurriculars aren't school based, school officials aren't aware of her leadership activities. She feels this hurts her when they considering students for awards. And yes, this is how my daughter thinks, this is NOT me pushing her..lol. She is one self-motivated, internally driven child and her main competitor with regards to academics, leadership, AND band has dropped band to be able to take more AP classes, so my daughter wants to make sure the school knows of her outside activities in addition to her commitment to marching band. The other young lady has had two older siblings who were valedictorian and, therefore, is on the school's "radar". My daughter wants to make sure she is as well.

Our Scoutmaster retired after 4 years of leadership so the troop commissioned a quilt to commemorate his service. We were able to incorporate Class A and B uniform shirts as well as the old-style twill shorts and pants.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tbMXvrgoy3.../BSA+Quilt.JPG

^^^ Very cool!

Oooh, I love that quilt!!!! That is beautiful.

Our second son should be finishing his Eagle within the next 2 months!:)

Congrats to him!