Thursday, February 20, 2014

Eagle Scout Board of Review

I've been reviewing Eagle Scout projects now for nearly five years and this is the first time I've actually had the opportunity to attend an Eagle Scout Board of Review.

This is what happens when you are a project coach for an Eagle Scout candidate and they actually invite you to the Review!  So I got to go downtown to the Gerald R. Ford Museum and sit in the auditorium and watch as my candidate was introduced. I got to meet his parents and aunts and uncles and Scout leaders and actually talk to them awhile.  That was way cool.

It was a bit different than I had expected, though.  I thought all us parents and coaches and Scoutmasters would sit outside the auditorium while the Board of Review chatted with the boys -- but it turned out that the candidates and the Board members left to go to their individual stations while we parents and leaders stayed in the auditorium and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until finally they all came back.

Then they announced one by one all the candidates who had passed their Review (which, oddly enough, turned out to be ALL of them!) and congratulated them and gave us photo opportunities and then we all stood around and congratulated them personally and stood around yakking it up until finally we realized we had to leave at 9 because the Museum cleaning crew were (ahem!) waiting on us so they could get their jobs done.

So we left.  With big grins on our faces. Especially on the part of the used-to-be-nervous no-longer-candidates Eagle Scouts.

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