- Chapter Twelve -
The Life of a Boy Scout


I began my scouting career as a Cub Scout while I was in third grade. I don't know why I joined, probably just because Jimmy and Matt were in it. I had to first get my Bobcat badge-it was the first rank in cub scouting-before I could go on to the badge of my grade level, which was the Bear badge. The Cub Scout pack there didn't have pinewood derbies but instead had balsa wood boat races. Two gutters were filled with water, and each person who had a boat would blow the sail on it to propel it down the gutter. The first boat to the end would win. I participated in the race the only year I was part of that pack, and did pretty well. I made it to the battle for second, but became nervous and kept running my boat into the side of the gutter. I ended up coming in third overall, and just like my luck, trophies were only given to the first and second places.

When I moved to Lafayette, I joined the pack at Mintonye just so I could continue with scouting, but it had another advantage: a meeting ground for friends. Almost all the friends I had after moving here were from Boy Scouts. This pack did have pine wood derbies, so I participated. I didn't really build the derby car; I just came up with the idea of what it should look like, and my dad did the cutting and building. The first year I (my dad) made an old Indy style car. It didn't run too well, but received a workmanship award. The next year we built a pick-up style derby car; it also didn't run too well, but this time we got no other type of award.

During my first year in Lafayette, Kelley Evans was my den leader. We didn't do much really. We worked a little on the Webelos rank, but mostly we just did various activities that didn't help us at all. The second year of Webelos was led by Dan Bouwkamp, after Kelley left to lead a different den in a different pack. He made sure we kept on track and were able to fulfill all the requirements of the Webelos rank.


Jonathan, Jasin, Matt, Luke, Chris
The next year, my sixth grade year, was the first of Boy Scouts. Dan came with us to be an Assistant Scoutmaster and then later he became the Scoutmaster after the previous one left when his son attained the rank of Eagle. We went to summer camp every year to earn five or six merit badges. A given amount of required merit badges along with other requirements are needed to reach the next rank. We had many fine experiences hiking in the woods, camping underneath branches that we put up as covering, and using aerosol bug spray cans-with fire, of course. I progressed quickly to the rank of Life over a period of two years, which is just before Eagle, and have so far not made much further progress. There are not many merit badges I am able to earn at summer camp anymore, and plus, our troop hasn't gone on a summer camp in two years due to lack of parental involvement.


Bruce, Luke, Jonathan working on my Eagle Scout Project
I have been involved in the Eagle Scout Projects of at least five scouts, including myself. Of these five, two have since attained the Eagle rank, but another three have gotten Eagle, though I was unavailable to aid with their projects. Jasin has most recently had his Eagle Court of Honor, which was Saturday the 15th of December 2001.


This is where I currently stand, as a Life Scout, with just over four months-until my eighteenth birthday-until I am unable to attain the Eagle rank. I need one more merit badge, Family Life, I need to do all the paperwork, and the best part of it all, I need to take part in the Eagle Board of Review. This board of review is made up of three or four people who grill the prospective Eagle for at least an hour and up to more than three hours. This board inquires about knowledge that we've learned through it all, what we should have learned, the basics of Boy Scouting, why we deserve the rank, and also what we think of certain current events and ways to solve their problems. I don't know if I have the courage to go through all this, but maybe I will get some time to (re)learn it all and get all the tedious requirements of it all done.

Boy scouting has been fun through the years, especially on campouts playing Magic: The Gathering, Hearts, Euchre, and even video games. I have made many friends through it. I will be sad to see everything change next year with most of my friends joining a military branch or going to more distant colleges. These years of Boy Scouting have probably been some of the best years of my life, the definitely better than any vacations I have taken.


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