Anecdote: One of my good friends, being the computer type, decided to collect a bunch of old computers and donate them to the inner city school district. He found a school downtown (in what we all considered back then to be a bad neighborhood) that seemed excited to get them, and then he tried like hell to get businesses to donate equipment. That part didn’t go so well, but we spent a couple weekends doing the best with what we got. I think we ended up with 7 or 8 different computers (no two were alike) ranging from a giant 286 to a couple of low-end 486s. We cleaned them up as best we could and loaded them with DOS and some educational games.
On the big day, we showed up at the school and discovered that Microsoft had recently (like, the week prior) donated to them 30+ pentium class Windows 95 workstations, complete with printers, scanners, the whole 9 yards. We watched as our computers were literally shoved into a storeroom while the teachers tried to seem grateful for our efforts.
Eagle project fail. But I can’t say the guy didn’t bust his ass, and he certainly learned something from the process.
It is now known as the Eagle Scout Leadership Project - more empasis on Leadership. There are some easier “canned” projects out there like building benches, but all of them require a lot of work for a young man. There are stages of the project, proposals to write, people to coordinate with, budgets to develop, and an after-action report as well.
Is Eagle easier? In some ways, yes. Thanks to the internet, you can get a lot of resource ideas a lot faster than when I was a Scout.
If you are working on your merit badges, there are merit badge worksheets (http://www.meritbadge.com). These make tracking your work easier.
Tracking down approvers is a little simpler thanks to email and cell phones. My son had his cell on all of his recruiting and fund-raising documents, and would return calls during the lunch hour at school. I had to hope I could find people at their office after school.
The numbers show that around 5% of Scouts make Eagle every year, and I THINK that around 15% or so of all boys who start Boy Scouting earn their Eagle. There are a lot of drop outs, a lot of death-bed Eagles (boys getting their paperwork in days before their 18th birthday), and some Eagles that perhaps should be pinned on a parent’s shirt instead.
A good Troop, District and Council will do everything possible to ensure that quality projects are proposed and approved, that a Scout learns the lessons of the project, and that the community benefits (projects can NOT be done in support of the Boy Scouts of America). Some Councils like permanent, fixed projects that can be pointed to for example. Ours runs the numbers annually and publishes the total hours of service provided.
Well, this subject is about done, but here’s my 2 cents.
The OP is correct to assume that a typical Eagle Scout Project should be more than a kid building a bench for his church, putting a flagpole in the ground, or some crap like that. If they are getting away with that, and I know that many are, it’s just more evidence that poor character can be found just about everywhere. That applies to the candidate, and the adults who should be providing guidance. Those that get the Eagle *badge *this way diminish the honor of the rank for every kid that works hard to do it right.
The project is and has been for some time, a way to demonstrate many capabilities of the candidate, chief among them being leadership. As mentioned by someone upthread, most people that have been there and still work with Scouts can usually identify a noticeable difference in the scope and quality of the projects. We don’t even want to get started on the Order of the Arrow.
-JR
Yes, I am an Eagle Scout, I actually earned it, I’m proud of it, and it has always been on my resume.
Unfortunately, when I was a scout (30+ years ago) our troop was really lax about eagle scout projects. I was a member of a troop supported by out Mormon church, so scouting wasn’t that serious.
One guy got his by spending a Saturday afternoon polishing the sacrament trays. :rolleyes:
My was marginally better in that it involved the whole troop, and was actually for a good cause (making wood plaques for the a local veteran museum, but the troop leader did all the preliminary work for it. I didn’t know any better, so I got credit for showing up and doing nothing more than any of the other guys.
The sad thing is that it could have been a really interesting thing. It may not have saved the world, but I could have learned more about planning and leadership. It devaluated the experience.
Still, I am proud of getting my eagle, since I was the only one in my group who got all the merit badges, without much support from the troop and did the other requirements.
I was never in scouting myself, but my older brother and many friends were, and quite a few of them made Eagle. I made it known that I was happy to help with Eagle projects alongside my brother and worked on a number of them. None of them were more than a 1-day project, as far as I remember. These are the ones I remember:
[ul]
[li]Helping an elderly disabled woman with her landscaping and home repairs. About 10 scouts and other helpers descended upon her tiny house, dug some new fenceposts and fixed her fence, weeded all the beds, planted a tree, mowed the lawn, painted the porch, and installed a new mailbox. She was very appreciative. A crapload of work got done, and although it was all pretty much for the benefit of that one homeowner, I wouldn’t consider it a slacker Eagle project.[/li]
[li]Painting new lines on the local high school’s parking lot. It was a slacker/deathbed Eagle project by a 17 years and 364-day-old scout. (Literally, his birthday was that weekend.) Maybe 5 people were helping.[/li]
[li]Doing some maintenance and repairs for a local playground. Installed new swings, refilled the playground wood-chips (got them donated from somewhere) and raked them out, trimmed trees, painted the benches and some other playground equipment. Don’t know how much of a real difference it made, other than maybe to the local homeowner’s association’s budget, but it was a lot of work done. [/li]
[li]Cleaning up a empty lot that had become an unofficial dump. Gads, what a mess. Old mattresses, trash, christmas trees, building supplies, etc, scattered over about an acre of land. That project had very low motivation from the 8 or so people that were there helping. Not much work got done. Finally, in frustration, the prospective Eagle cleaned up 1 small corner and took some Before & After photos of only that small area. (Niiice.)[/li]
[li]My brother’s Eagle project was a combination landscaping / parking lot job for our local church. He had some shrubs and flowers donated, trimmed all the trees and weeded all the beds, plus painted new lines on the parking lot. It was kind of a mediocre job, but better than some. He was only 14 at the time, and he really did a lot of work organizing / begging for donations for a kid that age.[/li][/ul]
Another aspect of the whole Eagle Scout thing that I found interesting back then was requesting letters of congratulation from famous people. My brother got ones from Spielberg, the current President and VP (Reagan and ElderBush), Buzz Aldrin, and I don’t even remember who all else. Do they still do that?
My son’s Eagle project was quite involved and consisted of constructing an outdoor classroom in the middle of a historical nature preserve along a trail. 10 large, 5 foot long low benches had to be constructed out of natural materials (tree trunk slabs) and the site had to be defined with landscape timbers, and there also needed to be a standing 6 foot tall “H” frame placed in the ground for the ranger to attach a whiteboard.
As much time went into gathering the materials and constructing the site 10 times as much time and effort went into getting all the necessary local permissions approved, insurance waivers, sourcing material suppliers etc. etc. etc., and (most importantly) documenting every. single. thing. involved in the project. The Eagle project paperwork requirements are astounding.
I’ve seen projects as ambitious as building a huge community center pavilion costing thousands (a major part of the project was getting donations) and at the other end of the scale simply buying, and the troop assembling, a big jungle gym type kit in a low income area. In all of these the time involved in finishing the physical project was far secondary to all the prep and documentation involved.
Kind of like real life.
The Eagle project typically requires a lot more time and attention and dedication than most kids that age are willing to commit to. It gets major respect and it does go on his resume, and proudly so.
I have girl scouts - we are only working on our Bronze Award - and it isn’t much - planting a flower garden (perennials) for a resident home. But that in itself is a lot of work.
Even a park bench is a lot of work. You have to…
Contact your city park and rec division for permission, guidelines, an installation site.
Raise funds for your materials, or call around for donations - this, in itself for a large project, can be a big deal.
Recruit help - building a park bench is a two person job - and three would be nice.
Build and install the bench - according to whatever guidelines you’ve been given.
Do the reporting and documentation required to move this from “my community service project” to “I get an award for this.”
For a sixteen or seventeen year old, who is going to school, participating in sports, doing his chores, etc. - that’s a few months - probably six - worth of coordination and effort. Building the bench might take a few hours over the weekend. Raising the money for the lumber and parts might take four months of phone calls. That’s a relatively simple Eagle Scout project.
I don’t know what Eagle Scout guidelines are but Girl Scout Gold Awards require about 80 hours of work and are independent. Silver Awards are 50 hours. Bronze Awards - which are done by fourth and fifth grade girls - are 20 hours. That includes everything from project selection through execution through reporting (my Scouts just spent two hours doing their pre-project proposal and report).
Yup. The latest list has, among many others, both Al Gore and Rush Limbaugh - and right next to each other. I’m surprised the file doesn’t implode.
I could pile on about the Eagle projects I’ve been involved with in my son’s Boy Scout troop, but there’s been plenty of good responses in this thread. I will say the boys in our troop who were knocking on the door of 18 did real projects. I am very proud to be associated with my troop’s Eagle Scouts.
many projects are pretty mundane (speaking as a Dad of an eagle scout who observed and contributed to several such projects in our troop), and many are pretty impressive. As in everything, it varies. But it also isn’t the point. Every project I was associated with, and from discussions I heard every good project, required the candidate to show and exercise leadership. It may have been mundane, but the candidate has to take that project and find helpers, find suppliers (donations of materials are encouraged), organize project locations, etc. And that can be even harder for a mundane project. That is the true value. Everything about an Eagle is demonstrating maturity and capability at a very difficult time in a boys life. When his peers are out “growing up” and “having a good time”, the scout is going through multiple merit badges (many frankly kind of silly), advancing in rank (perhaps ditto), going to meetings, working with peers and adults, and finally organizing and leading a team to acomplish a community project. All before they are 18. When you meet an Eagle scout remember one thing-Bill Gates can’t buy that badge, the President can’t appoint one, the ONLY people who can receive that badge are 16 and 17 year old kids. And getting that badge means they demonstrated a year (or more) long abilty to stick to a project, to follow the rules (however silly) and plan and accomplish something. Yeah, I am kind of proud of my Eagle Scout.
My experience in Scouts is that very few scouts actually give a shit about the merit badge and what not system. There are a lot of kids that enjoy the outdoor activities, camping, and what not, but doing the requirements to get a badge? Nah. The ones that advanced in rank tended to have the most active parents. The kids that I knew that made Eagle scout wouldn’t have gotten there if their parents hadn’t essentially forced them to do so.
I was active in scouts until I moved when I was like 12. My old troop’s method of lighting fires was to gather as much firewood as possible, dump some lighter fluid on it, and let er rip. We were just out there fooling around with fire, knives, axes, and what not having a good time. The troop my mom tried to get my to join after I moved was more “let’s do crafts”. Fuck that.
Yeah, sorry to hear it, treis. That’s not how my troop was.
ETA: Although, I will say that the troop became that way in later years. I volunteered briefly a few years after I initially left. I found the scoutmaster to be a loud, pompous jackass who had micromanaged his way out of any and all respect from the boys. He was one of these “If you’re late, you owe me pushups” idiots. Eventually, nobody gave a shit about him any more. Too bad.
Just to represent the women:
I was a Girl Scout First Class (Eagle Scout equivalent). They changed it the next year to the Girl Scout Gold Award.
I organized the remodeling of a local community center (arranged donations from building supply places, got permits and volunteers to help with the repair/cleaning/painting) and organized social events in the center for adults with mental retardation during my senior year of high school.
For that I got my name in the paper, a special pin and merit badge, a signed note of congratulations from President Jimmy Carter, and would have been automatically granted a rise of one rank had I chosen to join the military.
