Eagle Scouting

[AGDee]

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!

[AGDee]

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!

[alum]

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.

[AGDee]

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.

[carnation]

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

[alum]

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.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by alum

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.

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.

[AlphaSigOU]

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!

[alum]

Originally Posted by alum

Boy Scouts of America in conjunction with Robert Kaufman Fabrics (a good quality fabric manufacturer) is releasing a new line of quilting cottons this week. As seen by the link below, the motifs are all Scout-themed. The line is officially licensed through BSA so I would assume that BSA gets some money back on each purchase. http://www.robertkaufman.com/fabrics...ts_of_america/

I'll be curious to see if the official Scout Shops carry some of this or if it will only be sold in quilt stores.

This is my favorite.

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.

[em_adpi]

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.

[AGDee]

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.

[alum]

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.

[MysticCat]

^^^ Very cool!

[carnation]

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

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

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by carnation

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

Congrats to him!