We celebrated Vince and Sam’s Eagle Scout accomplishment yesterday. When we started to organize this traditional Eagle Court of Honor 3 or 4 weeks ago, we were planning on an indoor ceremony with indoor eating (maybe a Chinese buffet), but we were increasingly concerned with the Delta variant and with the county reinstating the indoor mask mandate effective midnight Friday night, we changed the food to boxed sandwiches and moved the eating to outside – though we still had the ceremony inside.
I did nothing in preparation for this. The troop did a tremendous amount. Jeremy and Kate (Sam’s mom) arranged for the food and desserts. Kate was making a poster and kindly had extra craft supplies and Jeremy quickly printed photos on Friday during the day and pulled together mementos and crafted alongside Kate. Jeremy wrote and delivered the parental speech. Vince wrote his own speech. All four grandparents were in attendance, a wonderful occasion for all.
As Jeremy said in his speech, when I proposed Vince join scouts in 2009 Jeremy was hesitant given the baggage of the Boy Scouts and I understood the baggage, but scouts has really been a cornerstone of our lives here in Rockville. No other extra curricular activity in Vince’s life took hold as much as this one. In 2009, I had no idea it would end up being such an important part of Vince’s life. Vince, as he said in his speech, was never really interested in getting the Eagle Scout rank (merit badge hunting and going through paperwork hoops is not his strong suit), even as he got more and more responsibility running the troop, eventually running the whole thing with much success his senior year. We all understand that Scouts (as a national organization) is anachronistic and might not last much longer, but we are grateful for the experience.
I really am a terrible photographer these days, I have no photos of people. The boxed lunches were perfect, people could grab them as they left the ceremony and there were chairs set out outside for everyone to eat (in the parking lot, lol). It was a lovely summer evening and we all stayed a while and chatted. It was wonderful to see the “kids” sitting on the curbs having fun and eating.
Friday was also Vince’s last day at JCC camp as a counselor, though he is still working another two weeks in their August lower-key day care/camp. It was a lot of work for not much money and although he groaned at times when he headed out in the mornings, he was good at this job and he learned about how a program larger than his scout troop is run. He helped us out tremendously because he drove Edda there and back everyday. Edda returned the favor by allowing Vince to park in the handicapped spot instead of across the street and also by giving Vince extra “fame” because Edda’s been going to camp for ten years now. Vince was awarded the “dugma” award for his efforts, an award which was voted on by his peers: you can see it Here.