Remember, Remember: Eagle Scout- Drew

As I was looking through the photo albums this morning I kept coming back to these pictures of Drew's Eagle Scout Award. So here is my memory.

There is a saying in scouting that goes something like this, "To eat an elephant you must do it one bite at a time". It is true that for an eleven year old young man, looking forward to all that is required to earn the Eagle scout award looks like an unsurmountable task.  There is another truth in scouting that I learned from Papa Barnes. That a young man may be awarded the Eagle Scout award, but it is not without lots of help along the way. It takes a good scout program with leaders who care and are willing to give lots of time. And other boys to go on campouts and merit badge clinics who are fun to spend time with. It takes parents who are willing to get involved and "bug" a little bit(sometimes a lot!). It takes a young man who is willing to work hard and do things that are outside of comfort zones.

Drew had decided to do a project that combined two parts of his life, scouting and soccer. He talked to the soccer president Jeff Baines about a possible project. They came up with building a soccer rebound kickboard. Drew presented his project to the soccer board and it was approved. He wrote the project up and presented to the Eagle Board. Here it was rejected beacuse the land the board would be build on belonged to Cobb county not SW Soccer Club. So Drew contacted county officials and sceduled time to present his idea at the next county meeting. This put his project back by a month (Drew was a little frustrated at this point). It was approved by the county so Drew went back to the Eagle board for approval.   Finally he had all the signatures he needed to BEGIN the project work.

Another time I will write about he actual work, but for today here is what I remember about the actual awards ceremony. It was in held on September 15, 2001. Drew had invited his club soccer coach to the ceremony, but Joe Mashburn was stuck across the county becuase there were no flghts so soon after 9-11. But there were plenty of other's who came out a supported Drew.

Here are a few pictures from Drew's Eagle Baord of Review. It was a little nerve racking for me, but it should not have been. Mostly it was an evening for Drew to share how great he was. His scout master, Tom Danner and wife, Shirley Danner came for support.  We were suppose to provide two people to serve on his board. But one forgot and afterward felt so bad. So the only one Drew knew was Mike Womack.