Through Scouting, Eagles Learn to Fly

The Boy Scouts’ highest honor prepares young men for leadership, responsibility

Chicago Tribune News
By Leslie Mann, Special to the Tribune

Older Boy Scouts in Chicagoland and around the nation are rebuffing satirist Tom Lehrer’s spoof on their “Be Prepared” pledge, which says: “Be prepared to hold your liquor well. Don’t write naughty words on walls if you can’t spell.”

They’re shaking off perceptions of scouting as uncool and exclusionary to fulfill stiff requirements, including community service, to become Eagle Scouts. In 2005, 49,895 young men earned Eagle status, scouting’s highest rank, by completing at least 21 merit badges and a service project. Five years later, 59,176 climbed to that rank around the country, an increase of more than 8 percent, according to the Boy Scouts of America.

In this region, scouts took on such community projects as sprucing up parks, collecting school supplies and helping to rehabilitate turtles. One scout directed a summer camp on a South Dakota Indian reservation.

With funds tight for many public projects, municipal and social service officials appreciate these efforts while the youths recognize that Eagle status boosts their opportunities for jobs, college admittance and military service.

Ray Piagentini, counselor at Barrington High School and past president of the Illinois School Counselor Association, sees a difference between scouts and other boys.

“They tend to be the compassionate, reflective, respectful kids who know how to look beyond themselves. Some are high achievers academically, some aren’t. Some are into sports, some aren’t. But like the Navy Seals, they tend to be the rarest of the rare kids,” Piagentini said.

Kennady Gee, 16, and Rodney Shelley, 18, both of Chicago, stuck it out to become Eagles against some cultural odds. Gee said he made his dad proud, especially since his father had been a scout but didn’t earn his Eagle badge. Shelley said the time management and organizational skills he learned equipped him to start a business selling T-shirts in college.

Scouts, like many youths, have lots of demands on their time, making earning their Eagles an endurance test. For some, high-profile slams on the Boy Scouts of America for barring atheists and homosexuals from serving as troop leaders, with the latter prohibition going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, may have added a layer of discomfort.

Scouts “have a lot of peer pressure and distractions, like school, sports, and girls. Girls, especially,” said Eddie L. Banks Sr., scoutmaster to Gee and Shelley, of Troop 534 in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood. “They tell me, ‘Mr. Banks, I’m thinking about quitting.’ I tell them, that’s fine, after you become an Eagle.”

Banks’ troop has produced 72 Eagles since 1951, including seven (ages 13 to 18) in 2011. The troop is part of the Chicago Area Council, which serves Chicago proper. It saw an increase in Eagle Scouts over the last five years, to a total of 132 in 2010.

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