Climb to Eagle

I have had the opportunity this summer to teach Introduction to Leadership Skills to the youth at Camp Roosevelt. The very first thing we talk about in this course is casting vision, not just for yourself but for those you lead. Man of the Woods, how many hours in the car have we counted corn fields and dreamed of this vision that you set for yourself?

In kindergarten we knew you learned differently from your peers, but we thought it was a focus issue so rather than holding you back we decided to homeschool allowing you one on one time and less distraction from your classmates. By second grade it was clear you worked hard and focus wasn’t the problem, that’s when we received the diagnosis of dyslexia. It was around this same time that we went to the Sportsman show on the UMaine campus and came across a group of scouts from Troop 76 making and selling paracord bracelets to fund their epic scouting adventures. They suggested you continue walking around for a few minutes while they worked, but you had questions. So many questions. By the time they were done it was decided that you would be a scout. That fall we attended our first recruitment event where you learned what an Eagle Scout was. On the car ride home you informed me that someday you would be an Eagle.

When we learned of your dyslexia, we made drastic changes to your school assignments. Scouting easily played into that. The next few years you would plug away at school, at times you would respectfully suffer through, but when school was over you’d have your scouting handbook open, your pet rabbit in your lap and you’d painstakingly read through that book so you could earn extra belt loops. When you crossed over into the Troop and you learned that you could advance ranks at your own pace. You quickly moved through the first three ranks, having a deep understanding that your handbook had the answers and simply needed to be studied. Your Dad and I may have changed the curriculum, and taken the time to teach you study habits, but scouting is what motivated you to learn to read. When Covid hit and Governor Mills canceled school you used it as an opportunity to focus on merit badges. One of the merit badges you earned during covid was called Citizenship of the Nation, a few years later you would be taking American government in one of your online high school classes. I remember asking how the class was going and you simply said it was mostly a review of this merit badge.

So it continued that your schooling and your scouting life became so interconnected that we couldn’t separate the two. You used your years of American Sign Language as your required second language to practice with some cub scouts while on camp staff or guiding Packs through different cub fun days. These young scouts would deeply influence your life. 

While many who have never homeschooled worry about socialization, none had that fear with you. Between fundraising for all of your epic adventures, where you’d have me drive you from local business to local business selling popcorn. With each stop you’d look at me, run through your predetermined sales pitch and boldly walk into the business confident you’d pay your way to camp that year. Another vision you fulfilled year after year, adventure after adventure. You continued to practice and learn how to communicate and function in society as you earned your communications merit badge, or wrote a letter addressing why you were ready to become a brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow, you led and helped with recruitment nights speaking to new parents at Cub Scout meetings. You have spoken in front of a few hundred people at the Distinguished Citizen’s Award Dinner. None of this was easy, for some of it you spent hours talking to your bedroom wall before standing in front of the crowds. For other parts you took a deep breath and dove in. All of it continued to educate and grow you into the man you are today. Just as you brought your second language into your scouting journey you took your communication skills into your daily life. When asked to teach in your youth groups you gladly stepped into the role not worried about the public speaking aspect, only worried that your teaching would be accurate. Just as you knew the path to Eagle was found in your scouting handbook, you knew the path to your spiritual life was found in your Bible.

There are four aims of scouting (character development, leadership, personal fitness, citizenship), as parents we were thrilled to lean in and let scouting shape you. Through scouting, you have become a man of character. We saw this happen in your camping adventures. Remember the time we went on a night hike camping trip with the new scouts. The weather changed quickly from a cold spring night to a slushy freezing downpour where the new scout tents were soaked before they were even fully set up and their parents didn’t yet know to let them pack their bags so they weren’t sure if they even had dry clothes. The trip was canceled and in a blink of an eye those new scouts had a buddy and booked it back to the parking lot without taking down their tents. You and a bunch of older scouts and Scoutmasters packed up and hiked out their equipment. Cold, wet, and stronger in character. That’s a trip many of us will not forget.

Through scouting you have become a leader. I believe it was your last year as a camper at Camp Roosevelt when you were the Senior Patrol Leader for Troop 24. It rained hard every day that week and one of your new scouts was overly zealous to earn his firem’n chit. In order to do so he had to successfully start a fire using flint and steel. He knew anywhere outside was too wet to practice his fire starting skills so he decided inside his cabin was the best place to practice. It was during siesta, the campsite was quiet. Those of us who were there as Scoutmasters were enjoying a cup of coffee with a rare appearance from the sun that week when we noticed one young scout quickly hurry over to your cabin. You and the Troop 76’s senior patrol leader both rushed out following the young scout back to the cabin of origin. You all were in the cabin for a few minutes before coming to ask us to hold Zealous scout’s flint and steel with the instructions that for the rest of the week said scout could only practice his fire building skills with a scoutmaster present. In the end this scout did earn his firem’n chit and no cabins were burned in the process, thanks to your leadership.

Scouting has shaped your personal fitness, body, mind, and soul. You learned the importance of mental fitness through merit badges, spiritual fitness through Vespers and Scout Sunday, and of physical fitness through meal planning for camping trips and the many physically demanding adventures you took from hiking Mount Washington to Maine High Adventures that took you deep into the Maine woods and had you canoeing your way back to base camp. Now you can do things with your body that most people can’t even imagine.

With each rank you were obligated to serve your community. In the beginning it started with trail clean up as a troop, each scout doing their own part working as a team.  From there it went to serving local foster families, a group of people that you understood personally having had foster siblings yourself. By your life rank you found yourself living in a new state where you hadn’t yet created relationships, but on a family walk you discovered a local outdoor classroom that desperately needed a new reading bench for the teachers to use. Having had plenty of practice communicating with professionals you reached out to the school principal without hesitation and presented your idea to clean up the trail and replace the reading chair by building a new bench. Each step prepared you not only for the biggest project of your life, which was building a large three room storage unit for the Levant Fire Department, but along the way it became a part of your DNA. This past February when it became clear a man in your checkout line at work was experiencing a medical event you intuitively stepped in to help. When the paramedics arrived the off duty fireman told them you had already stabilized the man when he arrived on the scene. Your response was, “What’s years of scouting for if not for moments like this?”

Man of the Woods, I know with that story you're groaning inwardly because I shared it publicly, but I want you to remember that moment and this one too. Take a breath, look around and know the vision you cast for yourself all those years ago has been realized. What you didn’t know as a curly haired boy was that scouting would become a part of you. Scouting gave you the confidence and courage to change the end of your high school career. Last summer you found a gap year school that would allow you to expand your knowledge on two of your favorite topics: Biblical studies and wilderness training, all happening in Alaska which only made the experience all the sweeter. With a new vision set for yourself you asked us if you could drop your senior year of high school knowing if you earned your HiSet aka the GED that you could spend a year working fulltime to fully cover your expenses for your time in Alaska. This journey, and this accomplishment is only the beginning of your time as an Eagle. Take this foundation into adulthood. Learn from your mistakes, laugh at the chaos that finds you knowing you are prepared for whatever comes your way. Soar through life with the confidence and strength of an Eagle.

Know that your Dad and I are proud of you and we are always ready to cheer you on as you continue your journey.