My daughter is working on her Silver now... trying to decide on a project.

Good for your D! Is she in 7th or 8th? If she earn the Silver quickly and can bridge to senior before school ends, perhaps she can volunteer at a camp to earn her Senior Leadership Award over the summer.

My D's Silver Project involved guiding a local Cub Scout den in the earning of the World Conservation Badge. Lots of work to keep squirmy boys' attention!

Congrats to your son!! I still consider my ordeal weekend one of the most memorable and significant weekends of my life.

Meanwhile, my son moves to Webelos in a few weeks.

She's just finishing 7th and definitely won't have it done by the end of the school year this year. Do they technically still bridge to Seniors? The whole thing has changed now and she is not really a Cadette, she is a "Girls 11-17" (which I think is totally ridiculous because it's hard to call them that).

That's a great idea for a silver project. Since I just finished being a leader of the Cub Scout den for the last 5 years, I'm sure she could get in touch with one of those leaders if she's interested. I think she's leaning toward a book donation drive for the local library.

I'm just so relieved that my kids are into healthy activities.

On a similar track, and being a former Civil Air Patrol cadet (now senior member), the pinnacle of the CAP cadet program is earning the General Carl A. Spaatz (pronounced 'spots') Award. Since the award was introduced in 1964, only slightly over 1600 cadets (less than 1/2 of 1% of all cadets)earned this prestigious award, which bestows the three-diamond grade of cadet colonel.

There are 16 achievements to pass and three 'milestone' awards before one can sit for the Spaatz exam.

The Wright Brothers Award completes Phase I and bestows the grade of cadet staff sergeant.

The Billy Mitchell Award completes Phase II and bestows the grade of cadet second lieutenant.

The Amelia Earhart Award completes Phase III and bestows the grade of cadet captain.

The Ira Eaker (pronounced 'acre') Award is awarded for completion of Phase IV (all 16 achievements of the cadet program) and bestows the grade of cadet lieutenant colonel.

Cadets test for the Spaatz by taking a comprehensive leadership and aerospace education test, along with an essay question and passing a physical fitness test. One can only attempt to pass the Spaatz exam three times; fail it three times and no award.

I earned the Mitchell and Earhart awards as a cadet, but topped out shy of completing the cadet program (there was no Eaker award then).

It seems like so long since I started this thread but I'm happy to say that our son is 4-5 months from Eagle! All he has left is related to his project. His brothers are right behind him in the ranks of Star, Scout, and Wolf.

Over the past year, my son earned Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class. He's been working hard and loving it. For summer camp this year, he chose all merit badges that are Eagle required and he's been to 4 Eagle Court of Honors in the past month so he is feeling very motivated to go far.

My daughter is finishing up the last requirement for her Silver Award in two weeks. Her troop of 7 girls is remodeling a room in the local Ronald McDonald house. Although it's a group project, they each took a section of it and had to raise the money, make the plans, etc. for their piece. Her piece is flooring so she tried to get donations for carpet. She couldn't get a donation so she ended up fund raising to pay for the carpet and did find someone who would donate the installation. They will be putting the room together the 14-16th. It's been quite an undertaking for a bunch of 14 year olds. They've grown a lot while doing it. They've also been cooking a meal at the RMcD house a couple times a semester, planning the meal, buying the groceries, preparing the meal.

Yea!! Congrats to him and to you! I've got a Webelos who'll be bridging up next February.

Congrats to Carnation and her son! My OA/Brotherhood Life Scout finished the actual ES project 2 days before his 14th birthday. A month and a half later, he has STILL not scheduled his Eagle BOR. :( He really needs to get cracking on this so he can can finish it before 8th grade is over in a couple of weeks.

A Scout chose my job (an HIV/AIDS nonprofit) for his Eagle Scout project. I was honored.

One of the students at one of the schools I taught at created some awesome, handcrafted, wooden benches! It made it a great place to move the class outside to teach and learn!

My son is working on First Class right now, and we'll see where he stands after summer camp this year. I don't think he's even thinking about his ES project yet, but I have a feeling over the next year that topic will come up on a regular basis.

Senusret, can you tell us anything about his ES project? I think that's wonderful.

^^ Sure!

From what I recall, he will be doing some cosmetic work on our grounds, including cleaning our siding, fixing up our small front yard, making a "Please Don't Litter" sign for it, painting our back porch, and staining and finishing our wooden wheelchair ramp.

I didn't want him to have to do all that grunt work, but he had to choose activities that the organization didn't already have the capacity to do on our own.

I am so glad that this thread was bumped. Congrats to all the Scouts (and their parents) on their achievements. Our friends’ son received his Eagle Award earlier this year and his project was creating fitness zones along a walking trail. Also, an Eagle Scout from our church’s Troop received an appointment to Annapolis.

Last year was our first as Tigers and we had a blast. I felt like I was herding cats on many occasions but it was all worth it. They enjoyed the Renaissance Festival but I think that they enjoyed playing with the TV cameras more.

My son placed first in his division for Raingutter Regatta and second overall. He also placed first in his division for Pinewood Derby and first place overall. To say that his dad was proud would be an understatement. ;) I was so busy helping with the other divisions’ heats that I didn’t even realize that he had done so well.

We had a combined Blue and Gold/Crossover Banquet a few weeks ago. It came as a great surprise that my den received the National Den Award (including a ribbon for our den flag) and that I received the Tiger Cub Den Leader Award (including a TCDLA Knot). (It was a surprise because I had not heard from the District office if our applications had been approved or not. They also usually only award these at District Banquets.) My boys also received their Religious Knot for completing our Archdiocese’s Guardian Angel Award. They had already received their medals at a special Scout Mass from the Auxiliary Bishop. Two sisters and a brother earned Cub Scout Buddy certificates. Lots of fun and great memories.

We are looking forward to our Wolf year. I was very touched when the boys asked me to be their leader again.

I had never seen an Arrow of Light ceremony until our 3rd son's this year. It was a lot like various honor society initiations I've been through...it was at sunset, and adults dressed as Native Americans came through the woods shaking instruments, then they told an NA story and gave "words of admonition" (I don't know how else to describe them) to the boys. (Unfortunately, one of the "Indians" was the French boy's dad so he was easily identifiable and also hard to understand, lol. We told him later that he must be an Algonquin or some other French-speaking Indian!)

Then the boys had to cross a bridge that had a log in it--the log symbolized obstacles that the boys would have to deal with and conquer someday. At the end of the bridge were older boys who put the new insignia on them. I warned our older sons not to mess with our younger one at this point...i.e., you're in big trouble if you toss him off the bridge or pants him.

But then you look at several aspects of Scouting and they're very similar to Greek life.