Changes I have noticed as I get older

For some reason lately I have noticed scouting a bit more and realized there have been changes since I was a boy in the program. The main one that is sort of upsetting is the way Eagle Scouts are completing their service projects.

I am an Eagle Scout and have been most of my scouting years. I will tell you about my service project and tell me if you see a difference in an example of one completed today.

For my service project, I decided to paint the trash cans for the parks and recreation department for our city parks. (It was a smaller town so maybe 50 cans or barrels total)

To complete this project I had to call the Parks and Rec. dept, arrange a place to paint the barrels, find the materials, or someone to donate the materials and coordinate the troop to complete the labor. During all of this my leaders and my father told me they were there if I had a question but basically I was on my own.

Now I had an edge since our family was in the painting business, so the tools and the painting area were easy to arrange. I remember it taking me several weeks to complete the planning and setting up the arrangements. As young as I was, it felt like a great accomplishment and I can see the lessons I learned in what I do today.

Now let’s look at the current projects. So far I have seen 2 boys complete “coat drives” for their project. Now I haven’t completed this but I don’t see how much involvement it takes to set up a box, ask the Church leadership if they can place them in the foyer, and make an announcement. Yeah maybe the boy and his father has to go around picking them up and dropping them off but where is the involvement of the troop? Where is the display of leadership over other scouts?

Maybe the focus is all about the charity now, I think for me it was more about the leading and management skills learned in the process. I don’t see our youth learning much of that and I would hope that that level of scouting would provide that.

But then again, other then when I got my Eagle Badge, my wife has been the only one who has mentioned the Eagle Scout accomplishment. Maybe that distinction has lost its mark in society.