On June 18, my son, Robin, completed his Boy Scout Eagle leadership service project – a cleared and chip-covered trail leading to and including a raised, railed deck and bench overlooking inner Eagle Harbor from the northwest corner of Rose Loop.
Since then, he’s completed the remaining requirements for advancement from Life Scout to Eagle Scout.
A formal Board of Review in a month or two will evaluate his worthiness to receive the top rank in scouting.
To the City of Bainbridge Island and its Road Ends Commission, thank you for the road-end project opportunity afforded this Boy Scout. Over 70 such public right-of-way road ends exist on our island, many of which terminate at the water’s edge and served as Mosquito Fleet taxi stops 100 years ago.
About a dozen of these have been buffed into shape by scouts or the city as coveted public beach or bluff access points at which to enjoy our natural surroundings for a little while.
Five have been completed by Life Scouts in Troop 1496 (First Baptist Church), four in the past eight months. Life Scouts from the other island troops – Troop 1564 (American Legion), Troop 1565 (Bethany Lutheran Church) and Troop 1566 (LDS Church) – tackled similar projects over the years.
To Kingston Lumber, Bainbridge Island Youth Services and the City of Bainbridge Island, thank you for generous donations of materials and job opportunities to help fund the remaining deck materials.
This Eagle Scout service project is much like many others in that it both represents and reveals the generosity in our community.
Scouting has given much to society since receiving a National Charter from our Congress 99 years ago. Cub Scouts. Boy Scouts and Venturing Scouts (both genders) have not only given communities their service, but have acquired from scouting a sense of duty to God and country, to other people, and to themselves.
Boy Scouts also practice learning and living a dozen core values among which are trustworthiness, loyalty, courtesy, cheerfulness and thriftiness – traits in short supply these days by some metrics.
I am grateful for what scouting has given both my sons and me and urge those who would scrap it to rationally reexamine the basis for such thinking.
Marc Stewart
Bainbridge Island
