Features

October 25, 2009

The path to Eagle

Scouting a tradition for Bookwalter boys

JANINE UNGVARSKY For The Times Leader

October 29 will be a special day in the Forty Fort home of Connie and Bill Bookwalter. That’s the day of the Eagle Scout Court of Honor and banquet for their son, Cody. It’s a special accomplishment, the highest award given by the Boy Scouts of America -- and one the proud parents know very well. Cody, 16, is the fourth Bookwalter son to become an Eagle Scout, a rank also held by brothers Randy, 22, Shawn, 20 and Brandon, 18.

“We certainly have families where scouting becomes a tradition, but it’s not really common for so many to take on the Eagle Scout commitment,” said Dave Srebro, an executive with the local Boy Scouts of America Council and adviser to the Eagle Scout Board of Review. “And it’s definitely a commitment, something you have to decide to do, a threshold you cross where all the work is on you. The leaders have laid the ground work and now it’s up to you to finish the trail,” said Srebro, who also is an Eagle Scout.

The oldest Bookwalter son, Randy, was the first to head down the scouting path. “I was looking for activities for National Junior Honor Society,” he said. Scouting was one of a number of activities he joined, but one of the few that really stuck. “I went on a camping trip and that was it. I fell in love,” he said. “But I honestly never thought I would attain the rank of Eagle, since I started later. I figured I’d enjoy the camping and the camaraderie, but that would be it.”

But something changed one night at a campfire. Randy explained there is a song about being an Eagle Scout, about the eagle on a scout’s chest. “I listened to that song and realized I could do this, I only needed seven more badges to be an Eagle,” he said.

The badges he needed were ones that couldn’t be earned while camping, so Randy spent hours on the phone and traveled throughout the Valley to meet with the mentors who could help him achieve his new dream. When it was finally time to coordinate and complete the service project required of all Eagle Scouts, Randy decided to build six picnic tables and clear about 100 yards of brush at Moon Lake Park.

In 2004, four years after his scouting adventure began, Randy became the first Eagle Scout in 10 years for Swoyersville Troop 143 and only the third in the troop’s history, and the Bookwalters attended their first Eagle Award Court of Honor.

“Once Randy got it, I said I can’t let him beat me,” said Shawn, 20.

Like his brother, Shawn joined scouting with limited expectations. “I thought I’d have some fun and move on,” he said.

Instead, he started down the Eagle path. He also turned to Moon Lake Park for his project and learned that they needed more picnic tables and additional brush cleared. In 2005, he joined his brother in the ranks of Eagle Scouts.

By then, there was little choice for Brandon, 18. Between the natural urge to keep up with his brothers and “a little parental prodding,” Brandon signed up for Scouts. Despite the fact that his brothers had gone before him, Brandon said it wasn’t always easy.

“Before you get to freshman year in high school, if the kids find out you’re in scouting you get made fun of. Later, it’s different,” he said, recalling a time he was camping with some non-scouting friends who relied on him to start the fire.

“You have this set of skills that no one else has in the group,” Brandon said. He can also count among his skills power-washing and painting — skills he put to use in his Eagle project of repainting the Forty Fort swimming pool’s pool house. He earned his Eagle award in 2007.

Cody, the quietest of the well-spoken brothers, completed the requirements for his award this year.

“I’m very proud of myself for getting it because of the work I did,” the Wyoming Valley West junior said. His Eagle project was also at the Forty Fort pool, making partitions for one of the changing rooms.

The boys worked on each other’s projects, each of which took at least 300 man hours to complete. Each had a number of challenges to overcome. The driving rainstorms of Hurricane Ivan hit the day Randy was delivering his picnic tables, but the tables were already stacked and loaded three-high on the truck, so Randy led his team a back way around flooded and closed roads to complete the project.

Shawn faced a different problem. “It was probably the hottest day of the year,” he said, and one scout master got poison ivy. “The other scout master had a kidney stone, and he had all the tools we needed in his truck. He went to the hospital, then he came up anyway to bring the equipment.”

Brandon’s project probably went the smoothest, but it also took a good deal more time on site to complete. Brandon had to lead his team through three days of work, first power-washing, then priming and finally painting the building.

“The project puts you in the position of man-in-charge of scouts aged 12-17 and even the adults, and giving instructions to the adults is a little hard. You can’t tell them what to do, you have to guide them,” he said.

For Cody, a design problem was the biggest challenge he faced over the several weekends he worked on site.

“We had to do a couple of revisions to the blueprints,” he said. “We added a truss across the top to make the partitions sturdier.” And after passing his Eagle interview, Cody was notified in February that he would be joining his brothers as an Eagle Scout.

The boys and their parents are proud of the accomplishment they’ve achieved not only individually but as brothers. “I think it’s only three scouts out of 100 that make Eagle,” Shawn pointed out as he looked around the family living room at his brothers. “I was proud, too, but I was also glad when we were done,” said the boys’ father with a chuckle. “I can paint blindfolded now.”

“I was very proud of all of them, of their accomplishments,” said Connie. “But I just assumed they would do this because they are my boys and they always do wonderful things.” It doesn’t take much for stories about scouting experiences to come tumbling out of the brothers. They speak eagerly of the places scouting has taken them on camping trips —Gettysburg, a military base in Ottawa, Niagara Falls, the Chesapeake River, beach camping at Wildwood and camping in the U.S. Capitol. There was the time Randy’s group pitched a tent in the dark and woke to find themselves soaking wet because they were camped in a spillway in a rainstorm. Some of the tales they tell make one wonder why they thought scouting was so much fun — like the time the hot chocolate in Cody’s thermos was so hot he came home from a camping trip with second degree burns on his chin. Cody also seemed to get the worst of another trip. “We’re all part of the Order of the Arrow, the scout’s honor society,” Brandon explained, “and to get it, you have to go through an ordeal where you camp outside with a sleeping bag and a tarp. The weekend Cody and I were going for it, it poured and I was soaked head to toe.” With some of his gear accidentally left in someone else’s car, Brandon didn’t have a change of clothes. “It was freezing cold and I was wet and miserable, and to get my mind off of it, I decided to look for someone who was worse off than I was.” He looked around the circle of his fellow scouts, searching for the poor soul who was even wetter and colder. “I saw someone shivering under a space blanket and I said he was definitely worse off,” Brandon said — then he realized it was his little brother Cody. To make matters worse, big brothers Randy and Shawn were also on the camping trip but they were being honored for another accomplishment, an honor that came with a tent to sleep in and a hot breakfast. “We went down to check on the other guys and saw these two soaking wet and shivering,” Shawn said, the smiles on his and Randy’s faces were pretty clear indications they didn’t offer dry clothes and warm food to their younger brothers.

All four brothers laugh at the memories and insist that the cold, uncomfortable moments were well worth it. “Now when I hear the song at camp about the Eagle on his chest, I feel really warm and good,” said Brandon. “It’s a great feeling inside you when you know you did something good and people are happy about it.”

The boys have already reaped the rewards of all their hard work. “I went for a job as a pharmacy tech and I put down my assistant scoutmaster as a reference,” Shawn said, and the scoutmaster got a call to check up on Shawn. “The manager was so fascinated with my scout history I got the job unconditionally,” he said. “It’s something that shows your character and your leadership dimensions. It shows that if the challenges seem overwhelming, you’re the guy to go to.”

The brothers have proven masters of other challenges as well. All four have been involved in sports at Wyoming Valley West. Randy and Shawn played football, though Shawn switched to cross country to get more participation time and stay in shape for wrestling, which all four brothers were involved with since grade school. And all four have leadership roles in Demolay International, the youth branch of the Masons. The boys are also active volunteers outside of scouting, and have helped with the Shriners’ Circus for at least 10 years.

They’ve racked up some amazing accomplishments in their young lives and they are well on their way to many more. After graduating from Wyoming Valley West, the three oldest brothers landed ROTC scholarships that paid for full tuition to Wilkes University along with stipends for living expenses and books. Randy graduated with a degree in biology and is looking into dental school. He’s also commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. Shawn is in his third year of pharmacy school and wants to work for the army specializing in nuclear pharmacy. Brandon is a freshman at Wilkes studying mechanical engineering. When Cody graduates from high school in 2011, he will also apply for the ROTC scholarship program and hopes to study criminal justice.

And they all give credit for much of what they have become to their parents, and to Boy Scouts of America. “When I got my Eagle, I knew I was a marked man and everyone would look up to me as a role model and a leader, and I knew I could do it,” said Cody.

“You’ll never regret getting involved in scouting because of the camping, the good times and the stories you’ll have to tell forever. And it teaches you to be an outstanding citizen,” said Randy. “I honestly would have done it all over again—or I would have done it sooner. I never thought I’d get Eagle and now that I have, it’s such a feeling of overwhelming pride. Like the song said, years from now you’ll see boys like yourself and you’ll remember what it means to be an Eagle Scout.”

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