03/21/2026
Scout Master thoughts after an Eagle Scout workday: today I had the privilege of attending the workday for an Eagle Scout hopeful from a troop with close ties to ours. The scouts in attendance today all started together in roughly the same timeframe (they range in age a couple years) and the same unit (though they represent a few different units at this point), and have grown and learned together through the years they have been in Scouts through changes in units, summer camps, high adventure treks, almost a dozen Eagle projects, graduations, etc. This is the second to last Eagle project for this group.
I noticed several things today that I thought noteworthy.
1. They keep showing up for each other. Five years into my daughter's involvement with this group and they just keep showing up for each other. They aren't all in the same unit, they don't go to the same school, they aren't in the same grade, they don't run in the same social circle outside scouts, but they have forged a bond that has survived the transition from middle school to high school and they keep showing up.
2. The skills they have learned planning, executing, and PARTICIPATING IN Eagle Projects have stuck with them. They were each as comfortable with the tools, the workflow, the safety precautions, and the expectations as the adults. They have helped each other with so many different projects, from building to planting, to landscaping, that they have picked up skills that will be helpful to them for the rest of their lives.
3. They hold each other accountable and root for one another. The project we worked on today was a long time coming (as was my son's which is this weekend). These ladies have cheered her on, sometimes forcefully, from the beginning. They have checked in with one another when next steps seem to be dragging and used gentle (and not so gentle) ribbing to get their point across.
4. Other Eagle Scouts can be the easiest AND hardest to lead. We had a small group there today. Of the 5 girls present, 3 are Eagle, 1 is the prospective Eagle, and the other is the last prospective Eagle in that group who is working on her project proposal. Dad and older brother (also an Eagle) rounded out the crew. There was some "been there, done that" that lead to the girls just doing things and our prospect not managing. When the afternoon had worn on, scouts were hot and tired, and attention was waning I slipped into SM mode accidentally and started directing traffic until my daughter (Eagle and former SPL) reminded me that our prospect needed to be the one managing the scouts as it was her project. Point taken 🙂
Girls belong in Scouting. They are learning valuable skills that will benefit them for greater things in life. Scouting needs girls. I have a son currently in a troop and had another who was involved in Venturing. Their experience has not been quite the same as my daughter's. I think the perspective that girls can bring to the organization is unique and important. Most important though, the friendships fostered through Scouting are unique and girls deserve to have the chance to experience forging bonds over campfires, on trails, over a dutch-oven meals, sleeping in tents under wide open skies, kayaking or paddle boarding on beautiful spring days, or any of the other amazing things Scouts do, big and small.
