Eagle scouting and success later in life

We have all heard the theory about how scouting, particularly achieving the rank of eagle, helps you succeed later in life.  You can hardly go to a sn2js or eagle court of honor without the stats being presented.  In case you are unfamiliar with the schpeel, let me tell you..... 

Of any one hundred boys who become Scouts, it must be confessed that thirty will drop out in their first year. Perhaps this may be regarded as a failure, but later in life, all of these will remember that they had been in Scouting and will speak well of the program.

Of the one hundred, only rarely will one ever appear before a juvenile court judge. Twelve of the one hundred will be from families that belong to no church. Through Scouting, these twelve and many of their families will be brought into contact with a church and will continue to be active all their lives. Six of the one hundred will become pastors.

Each of the one hundred will learn something from Scouting, and all will develop hobbies that will add interest throughout the rest of their lives. Approximately one-half will serve in the military, and in varying degrees, profit from their Scout training. At least one will use it to save another person's life, and many may credit it for saving their own.

Four of the one hundred will reach Eagle rank, and at least one will later say that he valued his Eagle above his college degree. Many will find their future vocation through merit badge work and Scouting contacts. Seventeen of the one hundred boys will become adult leaders and will give leadership to thousands of additional boys.

One in four boys in America will become Scouts, but it is interesting to know that of the leaders of this nation in business, religion and politics, three out of four were Scouts.

This story will never end. Like the 'Golden Pebble' of service dropped into the human sea, it will continue to radiate in ever-widening circles, influencing the characters of men through unending time."

Another way of saying this is:
Of 100 Boys in Scouting -
* Only rarely will one appear in juvenile court.
* 12 will receive their first church contact through Scouting. 
* 5 will receive church religious emblems. 
* 1 will enter the clergy due to his Scouting relationships. 
* 18 will develop hobbies that will give them a lifelong interest. 
* 8 will find their future life vocations. 
* 1 will use Scout skills to save another's life. 
* 1 will credit Scout skills with saving his own life. 
* 2 of the 100 will reach the Eagle Rank. 
* 17 will later become leaders in Scouting and will pass on their skills, inspiration and leadership to countless youth.

A comparative study of the records of Scouts and non-Scouts in a sampling of schools and colleges shows that Scouts hold most of the major positions of leadership in the student body. The survey resulted in the following statistics in regard to school officers bearing a large amount of responsibility.
* Of senior class presidents, 89% were Scouts.
* Of junior class presidents, 80% were Scouts. 
* Of business managers of school publications, 75% were Scouts. 
* Of student council presidents, 85% were Scouts. 
* Of school newspaper editors, 88% were Scouts. 
* Of editors of school annuals, 77% were Scouts. 
* Of basketball captains, 64% were Scouts.

Numbered among the alumni of the Boy Scouts of America are: 
* 64% of Air Force Academy graduates. 
* 58% of West Point graduates. 
* 70% of Annapolis graduates. 
* 72% of Rhodes scholars. 
* 85% of FBI agents. 
* 26% of the 29 U.S. astronauts.

The idea is that the scouting program sets the boys up to be leaders and teaches them valuable character traits to succeed.  I agree about the value of scouting to help instill those traits in our boys, but i feel that the scouting program is not entirely responsible.  I think that the scouting program require quite a bit of parental support, and that support is the factor that make good men.  Without the strong family support necessary to stick with the bsa program, those kids wouldn't make it, but the families who support and encourage the boys thru eagle play a strong role in how the child turns out. I think its a combination of those factors that make for successful men.

An unexpected snow day gave me time to make the Arrow!

We had the good graces of having a snow day Thursday and Friday.  We had a really bad snow storm moving thru the area that was slated to hit Thursday morning.  School got called Wednesday night for the following day.

I have no idea why people complain so much about snow days.  I should have every reason to bitch, since there is no pay for me if I don't have kids to drive to school.  I am just sick to death of people living in their own insular little worlds that because they live 1/2 block from the school and they can get their kids there then everyone else should have to go to school.

COME THE HELL ON PEOPLE!!!!!

There are alot more streets than yours in a school district.  It has to be safe for ALL OF THEM to get to school.

But I digress, I decided to take advantage of the day off of work and get some errands done.  The storm wasn't supposed to hit until around noon and at 930 I headed out with the 2 oldest kids to go to the Scout Shop to get the uniforms they were gonna need for their upcoming transition into Boyscouting from CubScouting.  $200 later, we headed home.  And the weather had hit.  Not only did it take me an hour to get home when it should have only taken 15 minutes, People were driving like clowns.  (to steal a favorite phrase of my dad's)

I got to sewing and managed to get all the required insignia on both of the boys uniforms.  Then I turned my attention to the Career Arrow Kit I purchased for my son earning the Arrow of Light.  (I had really wanted to make on, but ran out of time)  My snow day turned out to be a blessing.

I planned out how I was going to stripe the shaft (and had to leave stuff off because I ran out of room!)

I ended up using black for a background, and white for the arrow of light, green stripes for each webelos pin he earned, red white and blue for his national good turn, purple and white for the world conservation, dark blue for the webelos rank, silver and gold for the corresponding arrow points, baby blue for bear, red for wolf, orange for tiger, yellow for bobcat, green and brown for leave no trace, and tan for the outdoor activity award.

I think it turned out pretty cool, the only thing I still want to do is get silver pony beads for all the beltloops he earned and thread those onto the eagle feathers.  But they were out of them so I guess it will have to wait!

Growing Up and Moving On

My 11 year old is about to get his Arrow of Light at our Pack's Blue and Gold Banquet, the same night he crosses over into Boy Scouting from CubScouts.  It doesn't seem like it is much, or that it would be such a big deal, but ask any Scoutmom and they will tell you it is HUGE.

The Arrow of Light is the highest award that can be earned in Cub Scouting, as well as the only award that you can wear on your Boy Scout uniform.  The award itself is significantly different from other achievements in cub scouting, and is structured more like a Boy Scout Rank than other awards are.  To earn this simple looking patch, my son (and hundreds of thousands before him) have had to memorize the Scout oath, Law, Motto, Slogan, and tell what it means in their own words.  He had to earn certain Webelos Pins, and 'interview' several Boy Scout Troops.  And perhaps the hardest requirement of all:  He had to sit down and have a ScoutMaster Conference with a grownup all about his work on this rank, without his Mommy holding his hand or even standing by his side.  It was the first of many Scout Master Conferences he will have to attend, and I will nervously be waiting in the wings, biting my nails, hoping he doesn't choke on his words.  It symbolizes him coming one step closer to becoming the man I hope and dream he will become.

I have been an active Scout Mom for the last 5 years, and this marks a bittersweet end for me.  I can now have my weekends and evenings back.  I can clear out my hoard of "I can't throw that out, because one day the scouts might be able to do something with it" junk that consists of dozens of large coffee cans, baby food jars, oatmeal containers, tupperware boxes of glitter, crayons, and gluesticks, hunks of pvc pipe presawed into neckerchief slides waiting to be adorned with clothespins and felt.  I have done my part.  As my good friend Jennifer said to her son "I have held your hand and pulled you thru cubscouts, but now you have to hold my hand and pull me thru boyscouts with you".  The ball is in his court.  His success is now determined by his own determination.  He is the master of his own fate.  I hope he continues on in the path that we have both worked so hard on for all these years.  But I cannot do it for him.

It is a small baby step in the journey of growing a man out of a small boy, and perhaps just a taste of what is to come when he brings home a girlfriend, drives a car, goes away to college, gets married, moves out, and starts a family for the first time.  And I don't know if I am going to be able to handle it all that swell.  I still want to hold his hand, to guide him along, to shield him from failures.  But now that he had "graduated" into Boy Scouting, he will have to walk along this road on his own.

Many cubscout packs give their boys a Career Arrow as a special memento of earning this award and graduating into a Boy Scout Troop.  I wanted very much to do something similar for my son.  But as usual I have run out of time.  He crosses over in just 5 short days and I don't know if I will be able to get it all done in time.  I might just have to try.  I want him to have something to hold onto that is tangible recognition of all that he has done.  I know that it is really going to be a memento for me, because he will always take with him the knowledge and experiences he has gained along the scouting trail.

If all the other kids jumped off a bridge, I know now that my son wouldn't.

I just came to the realization that choosing a Boy Scouting Troop is alot like choosing a college.  You visit the troops, interview the Scout Master and fellow boy scouts, talk with your family, review financial records to see what you can affort, then make a decision and HOPE AND PRAY you didn't make the wrong choice.

My 11 year old has been involved HEAVILY with Scouting since he was in 1st grade.  Actually, he saw the Cub Master at the kindergarten open house and BEGGED me to let him join.  I concented only to find out that he had to wait until the next year.  And he was sure to remind me the very next year, even though we had moved and he had to change schools.

After that first TIGER year, I was recruited into a leadership position.  I ran a den of boys for their WOLF and BEAR years and co-ran a WEBELOS 1 den.  This year he is a Webolos 2 (or a 2nd year Webelos since the webelos program is an 18 month program).  I have been stepping back, and not actively leading a den this year, instead focusing my time on SCOUT COMMITTEE membership.  I have been running an active recruitment campaign to replace all of the leaders and committee members who will be leaving the pack to join a troop this year.

My son want's to earn his EAGLE rank.  I have no doubt that he will earn it, but I want to do what I can to find the right troop for him to do so.  I guess when you think about it, it is similiar to stacking the deck.  I mean we want our children to succeed, and it is the job of the parents to "stack the deck" in anyway we can to set them up on the road for success.  For my children, this means I make sure they have the tools they need to accomplish their goals.  I make sure they have all the school supplies they need, the clothes that won't get them made fun of, etc.  I also know that college will be out of the realm of something I can pay for, so we find something they like, and work the hell out of it so that they can have a shot at something.  My 11 year old wants to join the service.  (really I think it's more of an obsession with Call of Duty games)  He would be perfectly cut out for it.  And he realizes that earning his EAGLE rank will help him in obtaining a higher pay grade upon joining the military.  And he has fun in scouts.

But I digress.  We have been working on visiting troops to find a good match.  It helps that it is part of the Arrow Of Light award too!  For the last 5 years in scouts we KNEW that we were gonna join Troop 942 out of St. Andrew's Methodist.  95% of the boys in our cub scout pack joined there.  And it was the 'big names' of our pack.  The overachievers.  The ones with parental involvement.  It just seemed like a natural progression, both for me and for my son.  We were even sold when we visited the troop.  I spoke with the other parents that had joined in the years before me, and really felt like it was going to be like a reunion for me.  My son liked the active calendar and seeing his old buddies.  The meeting was CHAOS.  Lots of high energy.  I asked a giant list of questions to the Scout Master.   I was hooked.

Until I visited with another troop that the remaining 5% of our cubscouts cross into.  Troop 829 out of St Sabina Catholic Church.  My son and I walked into a small group of Webelos 2's sitting down with the Scout Master.  He was telling the boys all about the differences in Cub scouting vs. Boy Scouting.  It was the way he did it that was so special. He was asking questions and letting the boys tell each other.  If they got stuck, he guided their answers and thought processes by asking different questions.  It was the very embodiment of BOY LEAD with an ADULT guiding the process.

Things just got interesting.

I really was liking what I saw.  I liked how they seemed to be working the scouting system the right way.  Then the meeting opened.  The boys repeated the oath and the law.  It hit me then that I didn't see that in my meeting with 942.  Both troops worked on merit badge requirements, one was more active meeting once a week, and seemed to be into activity and fun, and the other was slower and met only 2 times a month but participated in more of the serious side of scouting.

My mind was made up.  I wanted the serious quieter troop, since they seemed to be 'growing MEN' instead of just providing a fun after school activity.  (don't get me wrong, the busier troop also had plenty of advancement, but it seemed that it was the core super involved parents kids who were advancing, which made me question if my son would do it without me PUSHING him)  I had no idea how to get my son to go along with it.  I was certain that he would want to join the troop we had been planning on crossing into since we found out about it.

Then a miracle happened.  He and I sat down and I asked him which he would like to join.  He told me he was still thinking about it, and wasnt sure how to decide.  I asked him to think about pros and cons of both, and think about what he wanted to get out of being a scout.  He told me he wants to be an EAGLE scout.  And he was kind of thinking that the SLOWER more Serious troop would be the best place for him to make Eagle.

My heart skipped a beat.  I was so astounded that an 11 year old could come to that conclusion on his own.  It helped show me that the Scouting program and all the work I have put into participation has been worth it.  I am raising the kind of kid I want to raise.

Then it got even better.  He informed me that he wants to make 1st class in his 1st year, and he knows that 829 is the best place for that, AND he figures that after he gets all of the basics covered, if he starts to get bored, he can transfer to the more active troop.

It was like he was reading my mind.  I had been thinking that it would be a good tool to have in my parent arsenal that he could transfer to a more 'fun' troop when I start to loose his interest due to cars, jobs, and girls, and sports.  If he joined the more active fun based troop then it would be harder to convince him to join a more  serious troop if the time came that his interest was waning.

So we emailed the Scout Master and told our Cub Scout pack the news, we were going to buck tradition and go with a different troop than most of our other scouts.  We were going to go somewhere that my son didn't really know many of the kids, and we made an unpopular choice.

I think that unpopular choice to go against what the whole crowd is doing is an important thing.  My son learned (and demonstrated) that what everyone else is doing is not the same as what  is best for you, and that it is okay to go against the main stream.

I have never been so proud.

Pinewood Derby

Last night was my son's last pinewood derby.  I am both saddened and relieved.  He is very proud of his cars, and his 3 year old brother is convinced it was his car too. (he even has the trophy to prove it!)  This year we went with a zombie theme and were able to take 2nd place for the pack (about 45 kids!)

My 3 year old got a participation trophy that was left over.  He really believes that he won the trophy because it was his car too.

My Webelos 2 with his 2nd place overall win and his ZOMBIE car!  

I have always managed to do OKAY with helping build a car, but I can definetely tell you when he was just a TIGER ready to race in his first derby my only thoughts were HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO THIS?  Now I find myself helping other kids. But I have a few observations and helpful hints to pass along before I am done with derbies.

1. It's about the kids.  Everybody says that, but it really is.  It is super easy to get caught up in making a car just PERFECT and not letting a kid help.  But let them help.  It is their race.  
2. DON'T let the kid do all the work.  Aside from using power tools at way to young of an age, the cars where the kids had to do it all by themselves never seem to do as good.  And all the kids tend to look dissapointed.  The method that I used was simple at first... I will buy all the stuff you need, you worry about how it looks and I will worry about how to make it fast for you.  I had him sand it (I touched it up when his 1st grade arms couldn't take it anymore) he painted it (I added coats when necessary while he was at school WITHOUT changing the paint colors or placement).  The next year I had him start to help me with the speed tricks.  But it was still a mostly you make it look cool and HELP me make it fast.  Same thing went for his 3rd race.  His 4th race was all up to him, he told me what he wanted to do and I bought the stuff and helped him (he even remembered the speed stuff), same thing for his 5th year.  
3. KNOW YOUR WEIGHT LIMITS AND RULES.  Even in my son's last year, weight was something I was pretty much in charge of.  He knows we need to add weights, and know's that it needed to be 5 oz.  I got that car weighed a bunch of times and got the weights for it and left it up to him how to place them.  A basic 2.3 oz set was recessed in the bottom of the car of course, but we still needed to add .3 oz and I gave him a selection of weights that added up to .3 oz  and let him choose how to incorporate it.  
4. Stickers are your friend.  As are scrapbooking supplies.  And Dremel Tools.  I am not a master painter.  My son isn't either.  We have used stickers in combination with paint, and have raided my scrapbooking supplies to MAKE stickers out of random images.  If your son has a theme in mind go for it.  My son never wanted to make a car that looked like anything other than a car (no hotdogs, skateboards, army tanks, wii remotes, guitars, etc) but plenty of other kids did.  Be sure to check the sticker section of your local scrapbook store for stickers that fit the theme.  
5. Know how your race will work.  Our race has each kid race in 6 heats, with one race in each lane.  Always against different cars.  There are complicated brackets and race formulas for this, but I never worried about this.  I knew that trophies were awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd out of the pack (overall) then after those kids got their trophies, the fastest car in each DEN that didn't win a trophy got a Fastest in Den (all 5 ranks with Webelos 1 and 2 being seperated) then the committee members voted for a BEST IN SHOW of the cars that didn't win a trophy yet.  Then all the other's got a participation trophy.  After our first race, my son decided he had a better chance of winning a speed trophy than best in show.  So we focused on speed vs. looks.  It seems in our pack the cars that LOOK like something other than a car win Best In Show every year.  

So how do we make it fast.......

1. Bake the block of wood.  Put the wood in a 200 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.  Watch it to make sure it doesn't burn.  This helps to dry the wood out and make it as light as possible.  
2. Check that the axle grooves are at true 90 degree angles.  If not, fix them now when it's easier to fix (the wood is still a nice square).
3. Choose and Cut your basic shape.  We usually do a modified wedge shape that is thin in the front and thicker in the back in kind of an S curve shape.  Do NOT go too thin in the middle and back but definetely get alot of that wood out of there. 
4. I use a Dremmel tool to cut a recess in the bottom of the car to hold the weights.  Nothing fancy, I just set the depth collar thingy to the same depth as the weights.  Then I trace the weights onto the bottom of the car making sure they are set as far back as I can get them.   This often means that I have to break the weight bar and put some weights in the back behind the rear axle and the rest in the middle of the axles.  You always want the weight in the rear of the car.  I always cut a channel for the FULL bar of weights and we remove weights later to get the car to make weight.  The weights are removed from closest to the front axle so that the car is lightest in front.
5. Sand that car and sand some more.  Start with 60 or 80 grit sandpaper and move to 120, then 220 and keep getting finer.  The smoother you get your car the nicer the paint job will look.  Wipe the sawdust off the car with a tack cloth (or old sock in our case) to remove the extra dust that gets all over everything.  You can do a lot of shaping with a piece of sandpaper.  The most important thing to remember when doing this is that the cars will rest on 2 pegs at the top of the track, and you don't want to NOT have a place for the car to sit against the pegs at.  If your car comes to a sharp point, it will be harder for the track officials to get it on the starting peg, and you want it to be sitting right when they release the pegs to let it zoom down the track.
6. Rub some rubbing alcohol on the car and let it dry.  This helps to raise the grain on the wood.  Then you can sand it off with very fine sandpaper.
7. PRIMER IS YOUR FRIEND.  When we first started, I didn't think to primer the car.  It really helps the paint look good.
8. Paint it.  We have used acrylic paints, TESTOR's model car paints, and spray paint.  Of theses, the paints you have to apply with a brush were very difficult to keep the brush marks out of paintjob and the paint looked bumpy-ish.  The TESTOR's paints gave the car a very authentic car paint color.  They looked like real cars paint jobs, but they were slow to dry.  The spray paint has been our best results.
9. Add your decorations.  Stickers, little guys, the body details or metal pipes or whatever.  Actually if you are adding the plastic fenders or whatever add those before you primer and paint.  Glue those down and sand the glue to look smooth.

NOW COMES WHAT I THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A FAST CAR AND THE PART THAT I HANDLED FOR MY SON FOR THE EARLY DERBIES HE WAS IN.

• I gathered my axles and put just the pointy tip into a dremmel tool and turned it on.  I was looking for axles that didn't vibrate or wobble too much. I choose the straighest 4 axles that I had. 
• Once I had the straightest 4, I remounted them in the dremmel tool with just the tip in the dremmel. I cut 1//2 inch strips of 220 grit sandpaper and soaked them in water for 5 minutes.  Then I took a strip and sanded the shaft of the nail until it was smooth,  I also made sure to sand the under side of the nail head.  I got some pumice powder and made a paste and used that to further polish the axles.  REVEL sells a kit with these things and instructions in it.  USE IT!
• After I did the axles, I moved on to the tires.  I bought a wheel truing mandral from REVEL and mounted it on the dremmel with the tire on it.  I spun the tires looking for the MOST ROUND least WOBBLEY tires.  I selected the best 4 and then sanded them.  Just the surface that touches the track and only until they weren't shiny anymore.  You want to smooth the surface and make racing SLICKS.  But you DON'T want to  alter the tire, just true it up.   Start with a coarse sand paper and work up to a finer grain and don't press hard, the sandpaper just needs to touch the spinning tire. 
• GRAPHITE PACKING.  Most packs don't allow the use of liquid lubricants and dry graphite is all you have to work with.  Graphite is awesome if you use it correctly.  Rub it into the car where the wheel will or could overlap the car.  Rub it into the tire surface.  There is an instructional video I found that shows how to PACK the wheel with it HERE.    I didn't use the tool but the concept is pretty good.  You mix graphite with rubbing alcohol and pack it into the wheel where the axle goes thru.  Blow dry it to evaporate the rubbing alcohol, and BAM! You have a wheel and axle full of graphite powder.
• I have also seen people use a dot over the axle head stuck to the tire that was filled with graphite so that the graphite can 'feed' into the tire as it spins down the track.  I am too clumbsy and would probably stick the tire and axle together to do something like that.
• Mount the wheels to the car and be sure to keep a slight gap between the tire and the body of the car to reduce friction.  Nothing really big so that the tire will wobble, but 1/16 of an inch or so.  
• Make sure the car rolls straight.  Adjust the axles as necessary.
• Puff dry graphite into the gap between the car and the tire.  Puff it into the wheel where the axle goes. Puff it under the head of the nail against the tire.  

Our first car, a spiderman theme, complete with a spiderman driver.

He won fastest in his den this his tiger year.

Our first car was a preshaped body kit car, because I was overwhelmed and had no idea how to cut or shape a car.  It was made at our kitchen table and we used a knife and sandpaper to round it out.  I hacked the wood out with a butcher knife on the bottom for the weights.  It was probably the most fun of all our cars to build, and I will never forget it.

He won the Fastest in his den that year.  And it was a HUGE den.  Something like 12 or 15 boys.  Large enough that the following year we split the den into 2 separate dens for
managability.

For his wolf year, he won 3rd fastest in the pack!

The BATMOBILE!

This year we won 3rd In the whole Pack.  He was so impressed.  This year was the first year we messed with the axles and wheels.  And the first year we used a dremmel tool.  And the first year we went to our DERBY WORKSHOP.  Our pack holds a workshop with ban saws and sandpaper and paint, so that every boy can show up with the block of wood and leave with a car that is ready to slap wheels on.  It was awesome for us since we didn't have a saw to cut our basic shape.
Our Batmobile car was made from the pinewood derby block of wood with the batmobile add ons sold at Michaels. The add on kit had a pattern for us to cut the block of wood, and plastic fenders, and a batman rubon decal.

The red car in the middle is his car for his Bear year.  He drew the skull himself and used a sharpie to draw it on the Testor's paint job.  The paint color was beautiful, but we learned a hard lesson this year about Testor's needing a LONG time to fully dry and the paint could easily be 'dinged' by touching.  Also, the weight's on the outside of the car were a necessity to get it to 5 oz.  The whole car was really thin, and we didn't have room for a bunch of weights on the underneath. Which I think effected our placement, as we didn't get a big trophy this year.

Another shot of our car on the upper right with the pink sticker

We were fastest in the den this year.

For some reason I don't have a picture of the car by itself that I can find from his Webelo 1 race.  But his is the Blue thunderbird car on the bottom right hand corner.  It was a super fast car.

Our car was the blue one on the lower right with the pink sticker on it.

Another shot of the car, this time from a side angle.  His car was cut from wood ourselves, then we added a spoiler and fenders from a plastic add on kit.  We painted the windows ourselves too.  Very angular this year.  This was a TESTOR's paint paint job.





He got fastest in his Rank this year.  For some reason they had the Webelos 1 and 2's race as one group this year.  He came so very close to a bigger trophy.  They had to do 2 raceoff's to determine the final placements.  A car had jumped the track and hitched a ride with his car down most of the track this year resulting in his only low placement.  Otherwise he had 4 1st place heats, 1 2nd place heat and 1 4th place heat that he had a hitchhiker for.

And of course our Webelos 2 car was the best placement yet!

This year he wanted a zombie themed car.  So we downloaded a picture from DEVIANTART and warped it down to 7 inches by 2 inches.  I had it printed at walgreens and peeled the paper backing off the photograph.  I used some scrapbooking glue to adhere it to the car.  We put the least amount of effort into decorating this car, but I guess after all these years of practice, we knew what we were doing.  He finished 1st in all 6 heats and had to do a raceoff for 1st in the Pack!  He unfortunately lost that raceoff by a 2 tenth's of a second and finished in 2nd place overall!