FLYING HIGH

FLYING HIGH

Wilmette Troop 9 celebrated nine new Eagle Scouts last week, an accomplishment only about six percent of Boy Scouts achieve nationwide.

BY MITCH HURST

In 2016, 12 boys in Wilmette’s Troop 9 moved from the rank of Cub Scout to Boy Scout, a rite of passage for more than a century. Last weekend, nine of those now young men were promoted to the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank—the Eagle Scout.

The celebration of this very rare, and hardearned achievement (only about six percent of Scouts progress to Eagle rank nationwide) took place at the historic Mallinckrodt Building in Wilmette.

While it takes years of hard work to earn the Eagle designation, in part the recipe for success of Wilmette Troop 9 can be found in the guidance of Scout Leader Jeff Spencer, a third-generation Eagle Scout. One of this year’s Eagle Scouts, Spencer’s son Andrew, represents the fourth generation of the Spencer family to achieve this high honor.

Along the way the Scouts, who are now all seniors at New Trier Township High School, have donated hours of time raising money for charity and organizing and leading service projects. Most have taken high-adventure trips such as SCUBA diving, sailing, and hiking over 100 miles through the Rocky Mountains—where they summitted a 12,441 peak with a picture of a fellow Scout who had to back out weeks before the trip due to a brain cancer diagnosis.

While some youth today catch a lot of unwarranted flack for being lazy and entitled, Spencer says the Scouts he has led in Wilmette are a fresh reminder that with dedication and commitment, there’s no limit to what young people can achieve—and they did it despite the pandemic.

Wilmette Troop 9 scaling Mount Baldy in New Mexico. Many troop members would go on to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

“They all have very busy schedules, but then all of a sudden the whole world shut down, and it might have actually given them more time to focus on scouting,” Spencer says. “We found a way to keep this going with more virtual meetings, but scouting is not only teaching but activities like camping and hiking, and they did miss out on about two years of that.”

Spencer says Scouts age out at 18, so those in his troop still had to meet all of the requirements of Eagle Scout regardless of the limitation brought on by COVID-19, making their achievement that much more remarkable.

“They had to finish up and something I always say about the Eagle rank is when you're young enough to earn it—because you have to earn it before you turn 18—you don't really appreciate it and when you're old enough to appreciate it, you can no longer earn it,” Spencer says. “They'll appreciate it more and more as they get older.”

Spencer now has two sons who’ve achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and he says what he appreciates about scouting is that it counters a lot of the influences that kids have today due to online technology. He recalls his quest to become an Eagle Scout when he was young.

“I remember a lot of kids that quit Scouts before they hit Eagle, and I remember it kind of set my mindset to be a finisher,” he says. “Like, I’m going to finish this degree, whether I use it or not, and then maybe I will get an MBA or do some something else. If I didn't receive the Eagle, I would not have finished that degree. I would not have done it.”

Scouting, Spencer says, is about everyday decision making and teaching kids how to do the right thing by recalling what they learned in the scouting program.

“It’s about respect for the values. You make decisions every day of your life, but it reminds you, ‘I need to make sure I live up to this. I can't lose my temper in this case because that’s going to be embarrassing’,” he says. “’I have to have a higher standard’,”.

Spencer’s middle son, Andrew, says that as a fourth generation Eagle Scout, it was pretty much inevitable he would follow in his father’s footsteps, but he learned a valuable lesson along the way.

“I knew I was going to eventually become an Eagle Scout because my brother and my dad and grandpa did it, but I put it off,” Andrew says. “It ended up just being a lot of work in a short period of time instead of doing it over a long period of time. It taught me a lot, mostly about time management.”

Andrew Spencer’s classmate and fellow scout, Alex Farkas, a transplant from New Jersey, says he was just looking for some extracurricular activities and ended up getting hooked by the scouting program.

“I ended up joining Boy Scouts because some of my friends are in the troop, and then from there I only had four years to (reach Eagle Scouts), so I started out really strong. I got a lot of requirements done,” Farkas says. “But then my schedule started filling up a bit and boy scouts kind of took a back seat. Then I realized if I wanted to get Eagle Scout, I’d have to pick it up again. It was a lot of work just fitting it into the schedule.”

Both Andrew Spencer and Farkas say despite the amount of work and the time commitment involved to reach their goal, the journey has been worth it.

“There are a lot of lessons, but the two big ones are that anything worth doing isn't going to be easy and you need to put in the work and effort to do it. You have to have the initiative yourself,” Andrew says. “You can't rely on other people. You have to make a plan of what you want to do and get it done.”