By Megha Lakha
Junior David Yale, a new Eagle Scout (as of last Tuesday), says that he “learned how to be an effective leader through Boy Scouts.”
David has been involved in Boy Scouts for a big portion of his life: he has been a Boy Scout for 5 years, was a Cub Scout 8 years ago, and will remain an Eagle Scout until he’s 18.
He initially came to the Scouts through his alma mater, Warren T. Jackson Elementary School. He noted that there was a brief time when he considered giving Boy Scouts up because “there’s not as much motivation once you complete the leadership because to progress you’re not going into the meetings, you’re not seeing people, and that’s where a lot of people stall out.”
David chose to stick with it because “of the people in my troop,” he said. “I became good friends with them, continued to go to meetings, campouts, and to see them; and this allowed me to progress through the ranks.”
David explained that there are three ranks: Star, Life, and Eagle, each with its own requirements. “For Star, I believe it’s 3 months of leadership position, for Life and Eagle you need 6 additional and lead other scouts,” he said.
David said he embarked on a project to become an Eagle Scout. His focus was set on Chastain Park where he explained that he “talked to the lead of volunteering there and we came up with a project.” The project is called a “Riparian Buffer, and it’s essentially a series of plants to put along a creek and what that did was help prevent erosion in the area,” he said.
I was curious about David’s scout leader’s role in all of this. That’s when he told me that his “troop is primarily scout run, meaning that almost all of the time it’s going to be the other boys in the troop instructing others.” He said that the troop leaders ”will help keep them on track if they’re time-crunched, but for the most part, it’s older scouts leading younger scouts.”
I did, however, get to talk to his Troop Assistant Leader- Brad Grout. “David was very quiet but always very enthusiastic about the things we did like camping once a month, regardless of weather,” Mr. Grout told me. “David was at almost every campout that I can remember from the moment he joined the troop to when he got his Eagle Scout.”
David was appointed Senior patrol leader of his camping trip- the highest position any scout can obtain. “As far as running the troop goes we try to let the boys do it as much as they can,” Mr. Grout explained. ”He did a great job at it despite being quiet, he got some louder guys to be his enforcers.”
I asked Mr. Grout to sum up a few things about David and his Scout project. Mr. Grout said he “killed it.”
