Malcolm Cutchins: Boy Scout banquet worth attending

This column is based partly on a 1,400-word essay by my home-schooled Eagle Scout grandson. Chosen as the best composition at a community college in northern Kentucky, the quotes about scouting are from his essay.
The topic seems very appropriate in light of the Boy Scouts of America’s annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner to be held at the Grand National Marriott on June 4. This year’s honoree is former mayor of Opelika, Barbara Patton. The speaker is Dr. Tim Thompson. The emcee is Eric Canada. Those interested in joining the large crowd already signed up to attend may call scout executive Adam Van Stedum at (706) 267-6042.

The essay starts with a “casual swimming trip that quickly transformed into a desperate life-threatening situation.” A 13-year old Boy Scout and his 10-year old brother, unlike the others nearby, noticed that two young girls had slipped under the water at a beach in Texas. The saving of one of the girls “depicts the bravery and quick thinking that all Boy Scouts train for as they seek the rank of Eagle Scout, Scouting’s highest rank.”

That highest rank often makes the difference for a job, for a scholarship or for saving a life. To gain it is often a struggle. Falling short usually is “because (a scout) lacks responsibility and drive, begins the program too late, or becomes distracted.”

Attaining the rank of Eagle requires “an enormous amount of planning, more than some scouts realize until it is too late… Similar to a college degree, in order to earn the Eagle Scout award a scout must fulfill certain … merit badges similar to ‘core’ classes in a college setting. Others are open to the scout’s interests, like electives …”

Difficulties in attaining “Eagle Scout are the myriad of distractions that boys encounter: ‘fumes, football and fast food.’

This is a saying from a former scoutmaster … it refers to perfume, car fumes, sports and jobs. The fragrance of perfume provides an enormous distraction to prospective Eagle Scouts … When scouts care more about mufflers than merit badges, they are beginning to lose interest … sports begin to take a higher priority…. many promising Scouts fade through the smoke of a campfire only to appear in the lights of a stadium.”

There is certainly nothing wrong with teenagers having jobs, but too often a fast food restaurant job is “needed to maintain the aforementioned car, thus beginning a never-ending cycle: the scout needs the job to pay for the car that he needs to get to the job.”

“Each scout must serve in certain leadership positions for set amounts of time and some merit badges have time related requirements as well. A prospective Eagle Scout must complete an Eagle Scout service project.” If more boys fail to attain the rank of Eagle, it will spell danger “when someone else needs assistance at (the beach) and no one is there to respond.”

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins is an emeritus professor of engineering of Auburn University and writes a weekly column for The Opelika-Auburn News.