As a former boy scout, I always enjoy the opportunity to meet with our troops and dens across the North Penn Area. Mostly, I interact with cub scout dens that are looking to earn their government merit badge, where they need to spend an evening discussing politics and government with an elected leader. Typically, I let the scouts sit in the council members’ chairs and, after each person has had their chance to slam the gavel, we do a 45 min question and answer period about local government and the role it plays in their lives. The questions are always revealing and help me keep perspective on what I think is a key element of what elected officials are here to do — build toward the future and not just focus on today.
However, recently, I have been fortunate to spend more time with some of the older scouts who are working on or have completed their Eagle Project. As many of you may know, becoming an Eagle Scout is not something that is easily achieved. It is earned over several years by committing yourself to scouting and learning the fundamentals of how to be an active participant in your community. It culminates in two key moments for the scout: an Eagle Project that they design and execute for the community and their final board of review where scout masters and community leaders ask them about what they have learned on their journey.
Last year, 26 General Nash District Scouts earned their Eagle, accounting for over 3,600 hours of volunteer work for the community, or to put another way, around 152 twenty-four-hour days of work. These projects range in scale from installing a safer playground surface and construction of an outdoor classroom to the bricklaying and landscaping around our very own Memorial Park Gazebo (thanks Jacob Curlett!). It is incredible in both scope and impact these projects can have on our community and for non-profits that do not have the funds or access to readily execute these types of improvements. To have a scout, leading his troop, and dedicate hundreds of hours to helping improve their community.
The impact of scouting on a community, of course, goes much deeper than just the Eagle Scout projects that are executed at the end of their tenure. Kids and young adults spend much of their time volunteering, giving back, and learning the value and impact of community involvement from a young age. The idea of giving back, hopefully, becomes central to their ethos and builds a lifelong commitment to that benefits them and the community they serve.
I have had the honor of sitting on the review board for multiple Eagle Scout applicants. In their review they are expected to discuss the impact scouting, in totality, has had on their life and how it has framed their view of the world and what they hope to do in the future. Like the nuanced and detailed questions the Webelos ask me in our government question and answer period, the answers from the potential Eagle Scouts are passionate, personal, and deep. You can tell immediately that scouting left a deep impression on their young life and helped them find a portion of who they are and who they hope to be. We, as a community, always need more people to be introspective in this way because it creates more engaged residents and more engaged residents means a better community for all of us.
To all the passionate and dedicated scouts who have helped our community over the last year, thank you! To all the parents and volunteers who have made this work possible, thank you for all that you have done to make scouting fun and possible in our area and we value all that you do each and every year!
Finally, if you are looking to join scouting, please look here.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert. The views expressed are his own.)
See also:
Mayoral Musings: Revenue Per Acre May Be a Better Metric for Borough Management
Mayoral Musings: Municipal 5G Could Provide Revenue to Repair Lansdale’s Deteriorating Sewer System
Mayoral Musings: Exploring the Elimination of Electric Deposits for Renters
Mayoral Musings: Willow Street Solar Project
Mayoral Musings: North Penn Black History Oratorical Competition
