Posts Tagged ‘Brian On Scouting’

After five years of steady increases, the average age of Eagle Scouts fell in 2017. It’s now at 17.21 years — or 17 years, 2 months and 15 days. That’s the lowest mark since at least 2009, the first year for which detailed Eagle Scout statistics were made available to me. What caused the average to…

It doesn’t get much more all-American than this. Chris Fogt, 34, is an Eagle Scout. He’s a three-time Olympian in bobsled. And he’s a major in the U.S. Army who spent a year deployed in Iraq. “I’ve always loved this country,” Fogt told me by phone last month. “I’ve been all over the world, and I…

Longtime Boys’ Life readers watching the Winter Olympics on Saturday night heard a familiar name: Red Gerard. The world was captivated as the 17-year-old snowboarder soared, twisted and flipped his way to Team USA’s first gold medal of the Games. Many viewers saw Red’s win in snowboard slopestyle as a major upset. Loyal Boys’ Life readers,…

First Aid? First place. Exactly 69,563 Scouts earned the Eagle-required First Aid merit badge in 2017. That’s good enough for a gold medal, and it marks three consecutive years of First Aid dominance. The silver medal went to Swimming (62,057 earned), and Citizenship in the World (55,917) took bronze. Not surprisingly, each merit badge in…

Today, Venturers everywhere have the green light to party. That’s because today is the Venturing program’s 20th birthday! The BSA’s executive board created the older-youth program on Feb. 9, 1998. In the 20 years since, Venturing has enabled more than 1 million young men and young women to choose their own adrenaline-packed adventures. Let’s begin the…

The Boy Scouts of America turns 108 years young on Feb. 8, 2018. What do you get the youth movement that has everything? A list of 108 Scouts who became famous. The list includes presidents and Pulitzer Prize recipients, astronauts and athletes, celebrities and CEOs. Two notes before we begin: The list is woefully incomplete.…

Taylor Morris’ progress toward the Eagle Scout rank was lagging when his parents made him a deal. Finish Eagle, they said, and you’ll get your driver’s license. That did the trick. Morris earned Eagle in 2009, as a member of Venturing Crew 2834 of South Jordan, Utah. Now 26 and preparing to competing in his first Winter…

On a tree-lined farm in Tennessee, you’ll find one of the coolest places in the country to be a Boy Scout. Troop 137 meets in an old barn in Franklin, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville. Its horse stalls have been converted into patrol meeting rooms. The hay loft now has a climbing wall leading up…

These days, higher education comes with a higher price tag. These scholarships for Eagle Scouts, sorted chronologically by deadline, will help take out some of the sting. If you know of a scholarship not listed here, please share the name and link in the comments. National Jewish Committee on Scouting scholarships How much: Ranging from $500…

It’s Groundhog Day, and there’s just one question on everyone’s mind: Will Scouting magazine release a list of the top five merit badges to celebrate this essential holiday? The answer: Yes. Mammal Study Ah, the groundhog. Marmota monax. America’s cuddliest rodent. Scouts who really want to burrow in and study the groundhog should earn the…