2015 Spring Eagles Call

NESA.org

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE FOR EAGLE SCOUTS SPRING 2015

SHINING STAR

OTHER EAGLE SCOUTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Tornado Chaser Reed Timmer Best-Selling Author Brandon Mull

Dan Reynolds, Imagine Dragons Lead Singer, Is Not Your Typical Rocker

PLUS: Four Outstanding Eagle Projects How Ideas Become Merit Badges A Maryland Eagle Scout Reunion

Are you looking for a gift for a new Eagle Scout that will be special and memorable?

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NESASTORE.ORG IS… Helpful You’ll find gifts that are perfect for: - Council Eagle Scout recognition events - Eagle Scout courts of honor - Birthdays and holidays

Eagle Scout Poem Give a special memento to an Eagle Scout while supporting NESA. Purchase the Eagle Scout poem! It is available as a wallet card or an 8x10 glossy suitable for framing.

All proceeds support the NESA scholarship program.

8x10 .................... $15 Wallet card ......... $5

NESA Jamboree Belt Buckle

NESA Life Member Jamboree Belt Buckle

At the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, NESA started a series of belt buckles to celebrate the NESA exhibit at the jamboree. The 2013 version is shown here and is available for purchase.

It has a pewter finish.

A special brass life member buckle was issued and numbered sequentially from 1 to 2,000. You must be a NESA life member to purchase this item.

To become a life member, go to NESA.org today.

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Special pricing for additional quantities.

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Eagles’ Call

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On the Cover When he’s on stage singing with the Grammy-winning band Imagine Dragons, Dan Reynolds looks the part of a rock star. But this Eagle Scout doesn’t live the wild life to match. See why on page 10.

NATIONAL EAGLE SCOUT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Glenn A. Adams DIRECTOR Dustin Farris

NESA COMMITTEE Rick Bragga, Dr. David Briscoe, Howard Bulloch, Nick Dannemiller, Clark W. Fetridge, Marshall Hollis, Dr. Ken King, Dr. Michael Manyak, Lou Paulson, Rich Pfaltzgraff, Todd R. Plotner, Congressman Pete Sessions, Frank Tsuru, Joe Weingarten Regents consist of more than 600 life members of NESA who are recipients of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

Contents

ON THE COVER: STEPHEN LOVEKIN/GETTY IMAGES; THIS PAGE: JEROD HARRIS/WIREIMAGE; COURTESY OF THE CARLSON FAMILY; LAURA HANIFIN; COURTESY OF REED TIMMER

MAGAZINE DIVISION EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Michael Goldman DESIGN DIRECTOR Eric Ottinger PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR W. Garth Dowling MANAGING EDITOR Paula Murphey SENIOR WRITER Aaron Derr SENIOR EDITOR Bryan Wendell ASSOCIATE EDITORS Gretchen Sparling Clay Swartz SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR Bryan Wursten DIGITAL EDITOR Keith Faber COPY EDITOR Ray Rose EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Adryn Shackelford

PRODUCTION MANAGER Lenore Bonno IMAGING ARTIST Marcie Rodriguez MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR Barry Brown

VOL. 41, NO. 1

Features 10

A Real Rock Star By Bryan Wendell You’ve heard several of Imagine Dragons’ hit songs, like “Radioactive,” “It’s Time” and “I Bet My Life.”

Now meet the band’s lead singer, Eagle Scout Dan Reynolds, who proves it’s possible to be a rock star and a good husband, father and human being.

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS Lois Albertus, Johnny D. Boggs, Teresa Brown, Keith Courson, Ryan Larson, Jeff Laughlin, Mark Ray ART DIRECTORS Elizabeth Hardaway Morgan Kevin Hurley PHOTO EDITOR Edna J. Lemons

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Calm Before the Storm By Mark Ray You’d have to be crazy to intentionally drive into the path of a tornado. Or you’d have to be Eagle Scout Reed Timmer, storm chaser extraordinaire. Timmer collects data that helps scientists predict the next big storm, and he does it all in one sweet ride.

MEDIA SALES MANAGER Patricia Santangelo MEDIA BUSINESS MANAGER and CLASSIFIED MEDIA SALES MANAGER Brian Cabanban PRINT AD PRODUCTION MANAGER Lisa Hott MARKETING SPECIALIST Jillian Foley MEDIA SALES ASSISTANT Amber Williams STRATEGIC PLANNING & RESEARCH Jennifer Chan CIRCULATION MANAGER Judy Bramlett CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Judy Pritchard HONORARY PRESIDENT, BSA PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Barack Obama PRESIDENT, BSA Robert M. Gates CHIEF SCOUT EXECUTIVE Wayne Brock MAGAZINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE David Talbot, Chairman

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3 Members 6 Community 8 Lifestyle 18 Achievements 21 Closing Shot

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Departments

Eagles’ Call magazine (ISSN 2373-7026) is published four times a year by the Boy Scouts of America, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Lane, P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079. Issues are Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Copyright © 2015 by the Boy Scouts of America. All rights thereunder reserved; anything appearing in Eagles’ Call magazine may not be reprinted either wholly or in part without written permission. For submission guidelines, go to nesa.org. Postmaster: Send address changes to Eagles’ Call magazine, P.O. Box 152401, Irving, TX 75015-2401. Online address changes: nesa.org/eaglescall_subscriber.html. Send other correspondence to NESA, S322 Boy Scouts of America, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Lane, P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079 or eaglescoutmag@scouting.org.

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NESA.org Visit NESA online to submit your Eagle Scout projects, see more Eagle achievements, complete scholarship information and more.

SPRING 2015

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News From the Trailhead

SPRING 2015

Eagles’ Call

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From the President I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dustin Farris as director of the National Eagle Scout Association. Dustin began his career as a district executive with the Oregon Trail Council in Eugene, Ore., and went on to serve as a senior district executive and district director in the Ore-Ida Council in Boise, Idaho. In 2007, he was promoted to Scout executive of the Northeast Iowa Council in Dubuque, Iowa. Most recently, Dustin served at the National Council as a major gifts director with the BSA National Foundation.

Dustin is an Eagle Scout and a member of NESA. He enjoys camping, the outdoors and golfing. He and his wife, Cindy, have three children.

Dustin already has hit the ground running since he started this role in early December.

We are actively reviewing all aspects of NESA’s operations, including the NESA scholarship program, to be sure they are meeting the objectives of both recipients and NESA. Adding value to local councils remains a top NESA priority, and we will continue to focus our efforts in this area.

We also aim to evaluate ways we can strengthen the relationship between NESA, Eagle Scouts and the faith-based organizations that support Scouting.

Additionally, planning is underway for another stellar Americanism Breakfast at the BSA National Annual Meeting this May in Atlanta. Look for exciting video clips from this event at NESA.org and on the NESA Facebook page, bit.ly/NESAFacebook.

From the Eagle Trail,

DAN BRYANT; W. GARTH DOWLING

Glenn Adams

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EAGLES’ CALL

MEMBERS // Merit Badges is

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oday’s Scouts can choose from 135 merit badges, covering basic Scouting skills (such as Camping and First Aid), careers (such as Medicine and Truck Transportation), hobbies (such as Reading and Leatherwork) and sports (such as Cycling and Whitewater). But that abundance of badges doesn’t stop people from suggesting new badge topics — lots of them. “I have a list of probably several hundred ideas that have been submitted,” says Eagle Scout Steve Bowen of Seeley Lake, Mont., who chairs the BSA’s New Merit Badge Development Task Force.

So how does an idea become a badge? We caught up with Bowen to find out.

Bowen says new badge ideas come from Scouts and Scouters, from national and local BSA employees, and from outside groups with an interest in a particular topic. When submitting an idea for a new merit badge, the submitter should also suggest merit badge requirements. If an idea has promise and fits the BSA’s mission, the BSA surveys Scouts to assess their interest. If interest is high, Bowen’s task force recommends the new badge to the Program Content Committee, which has the final say.

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badge is approved, the BSA’s Design and Development Center recruits subjectmatter experts to refine the requirements and write the merit badge pamphlet.

(Sometimes, as with the Game Design merit badge, they even pilot-test the requirements.) Along the way, groups like the Health and Safety Committee offer their input. Once the pamphlet and patch design are ready to go, BSA Supply Group begins stocking pamphlets and patches, and Boys’ Life and Scouting magazines an-

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The Merit Badge Maintenance Task Force asks itself these questions when reviewing topics for potential new badges.

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PRACTICALITY fCan Scouts find merit badge counselors and other resources?

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RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS fCan the badge add excitement to the program without creating additional burdens? fIs the cost of development reasonable? fIs the cost to the individual Scout reasonable?

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nounce the new badge to the world.

All told, the process can take a year or more and involve dozens of people. “You could easily have 50 or 60 people involved at all different levels,” Bowen says.

Not surprisingly, most ideas don’t make the cut. But even a rejected idea might have an impact. “If it looks like it has some good points, we may spread those out into other merit badges,” Bowen says. For example, the task force passed on a Composting merit badge but included the topic in the Sustainability merit badge, which debuted in 2013.

While creating new badges is a lot of work, the payoff comes when Scouts begin earning those badges in large numbers.

Bowen points out that two new badges were among the top 24 badges earned in 2013. “The top [new merit badge] was Kayaking, with more than 36,000 merit badges earned. The next one was Chess, with 27,000,” he says. “Now here we have a highadventure activity and a mental-thoughtprovoking activity — complete opposites.

I think it just shows you that our Scouts have a wide range of interests and abilities, and we should never assume that a given merit badge wouldn’t excite a boy.”

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MEMBERS // Eagle Scout Reunion / Super Bowl Champion

Returning to the Nest A Maryland Eagle Scout Reunion

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hree years ago, leaders of Troop 403 in Bowie, Md., realized they were closing in on history. Sometime in the next few years, they would welcome the 100th Eagle Scout since the troop’s founding in 1967. What better way to celebrate than with an Eagle Scout reunion?

The troop knew where to find its most recent Eagle Scouts, of course, and some of the older Eagles were still in town or, like Len Lucchi, Eagle Scout No. 5, still involved in the troop. (Lucchi, the troop committee chairman, is the father of Michael Lucchi, No. 77.)

To track down the others, Assistant Scoutmaster Roger Brow (father of Andrew Brow, No. 80, and Gregory Brow, No. 97) combed through the NESA database and then started searching Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and the address books of anyone who might know the missing Eagle Scouts.

In the end, Brow, who earned his Eagle badge in Dresden, N.Y., in 1980, found 85 Eagle Scouts. Fifty-one of them came to a special reunion last July. The timing was perfect — just four days after Blake Powell, No. 100, passed his board of review.

While many of the Eagle Scouts still live in the Baltimore-Washington area, others have moved all over the United States — Maine, Florida, California, Alaska — as well as to Canada and Austria. At Brow’s request, many shared stories and words of wisdom with the troop’s current members, as did three former Scoutmasters. “This country has changed so much, but the experiences they had from the ’70s all the way up to now were pretty much identical,” Lucchi says.

Robert Maskasky, No. 3, spoke for many when he said, “Your journey through life is just beginning. By earning Eagle Scout, you have learned that with hard work you can accomplish great things. Continue setting lofty goals and always be proud that you are, and always will be, an Eagle Scout.”

Although the reunion is over, the search continues. Brow hopes to have even more Eagle Scouts at the troop’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2017.

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ur congratulations to New England Patriots offensive lineman Jordan Devey, an Eagle Scout and now a Super Bowl champion.

He’s a rookie and didn’t play in Super Bowl XLIX, but Devey still gets a championship ring. That’s only fair after all the hard work he put in helping his Patriots teammates practice and train all season long.

Devey earned Scouting’s highest honor in 2006 in American Fork, Utah. He played tuba instead of football in high school because of a rare medical disorder that caused pain and swelling below the knee. After he returned from his LDS mission in Costa Rica, though, the disease was no longer a problem. Devey, who

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EAGLES’ CALL

stands 6-foot-6, walked on to his college’s football team.

Now he’s a Super Bowl champion and ready for a long career in the National Football League.

“The work I do now may not pay off tomorrow, but it might pay off a year from now,” he told the Deseret News. “Eventually you’ll reap the benefits and blessings of it.”

Devey isn’t the only Eagle Scout who has won the Super Bowl. Dennis Pitta won Super Bowl XLVII with the Ravens, Emery Moorehead won Super Bowl XX with the Chicago Bears and Ken Whisenhunt won Super Bowl XL as offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

– Bryan Wendell

AP PHOTO/STEW MILNE; ROGER BROW

Eagle Scout becomes Super Bowl champion

NESA Committee // MEMBERS

NESA Committee Spotlight: Hudson Valley Council Newburgh, N.Y.

As the name implies, the Hudson Valley Council straddles the Hudson River a short drive north of New York City.

Home to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the gravesite of Scouting founder Daniel Carter Beard, the council serves more than 7,200 young people across four New York counties and one county in Pennsylvania.

The council’s NESA committee, headed

by Distinguished Eagle Scout Ed Ward, regularly presents the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout of the Year Award and nominates Scouts for the Glenn A. and Melinda W. Adams National Eagle Scout Service Project of the Year Award. But its primary focus is an annual Eagle Scout Hall of Fame Dinner.

HONORING EAGLE SCOUTS Many councils hold Eagle Scout dinners, but the Hudson Valley Council’s dinner has several unique features. Most impressive, perhaps, is the location: the U.S. Military Academy, where a cadet color guard kicks off and closes each dinner with patriotic flair.

Unlike in some councils, the Hudson Valley Council event focuses on adult Eagle Scouts, not those who’ve recently received their badges. That said, the event isn’t limited to such men. Although up to three-quarters of attendees are Eagle Scouts, attendees include other Scouting alumni or council supporters. And younger Eagle Scouts are welcome, too (as is the occasional Life Scout whose parents want to motivate him to cross the finish line).

The focus of each dinner is the induction of up to three men in the council’s Eagle Scout Hall of Fame.

RE-ENGAGING ALUMNI AND THE COMMUNITY Scout Executive David Horton says the dinner has been a great tool for reconnecting “lost” Eagle Scouts. He estimates that 25 attendees from last year’s dinner (out of almost 200) have re-engaged with the council in some way.

The dinner is also a launching pad for larger efforts. One of last fall’s Hall of Fame inductees was Bishop Dominick J. Lagonegro from the Archdiocese of New York. This year, the council plans to collaborate with several neighboring councils in an effort to increase the number of Catholic-sponsored Scout units.

Quapaw Area Council Little Rock, Ark.

As the result of two mergers, Quapaw Area Council sprawls across 39 of Arkansas’ 75 counties. Its hub is Little Rock, the council headquarters and the state’s largest city.

Current NESA chairman David Elmore came to the council as a result of its merger with Ouachita Area Council in 2012. An Arkansas native, he had re-engaged with Scouting after years of living in California, so he understands the perspective of “lost” Eagle Scouts.

SCOUTING HOMECOMING The NESA committee’s biggest project is Scouting Homecoming, a one-day Scout expo held at the council service center each September. At the event, packs, troops and crews set up pinewood derby tracks, model campsites, cooking demos and more. The primary audience is new Cub Scout families who are visiting the Scout shop for the first time to buy uniforms and handbooks. To maximize attendance, the council holds the event on the day of a University of Arkansas home football game.

While Scout Homecoming isn’t an alumni-recruiting event, Assistant Scout Executive Terry Sharp says many of the new Cub Scout parents are former Scouts themselves.

HONORING OUTSTANDING EAGLES The NESA committee is also making increased use of the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award, which honors adult Eagle Scouts for distinguished service at the local, state or regional level. The honorees are a mix of current Scouters and community leaders. “These are Eagle Scouts who are still continuing their service to this day,” Elmore says. “It helps to have these gentlemen publicly acknowledged in the community, so people can see Scouting is still out there and active.”

NESA LEGACY SOCIETY MEMBERS Paul Nelson Adkins, Gulf Ridge Council Thomas S. Bain, Greater New York Councils Dr. David L. Briscoe, Quapaw Area Council John S. Campbell, Northwest Suburban Council William E. Carlson, Gulf Stream Council Scott C. Czarkowski, Northern New Jersey Council Jeremy S. Ditelberg, Knox Trail Council Craig Stephen Donais, Daniel Webster Council Christopher M. Duhan, Northwest Texas Council James C. Eskridge, Chief Seattle Council Randall S. Frank, Orange County Council Charles M. Greinsky, Greater New York Councils Dr. Marshall E. Hollis, Yocona Area Council James N. Jeffery, Long Beach Area Council Douglas W. Kirk, Atlanta Area Council Bob Kreider, Twin Rivers Council Henry A. Legarre, Greater Yosemite Council Theodore Rex Legler II, Hoosier Trails Council Tim Liffrig, Northern Star Council Nathaniel Lim, Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council Jeffrey L. McKinney, Baden-Powell Council Richard E. Meyers, National Capital Area Council Dr. Jeffrey A. Myers, Simon Kenton Council Randy L. Potts, Coastal Carolina Council Carl J. Stump, Blue Ridge Mountains Council Herbert G. Taskett, Ed.D., North Florida Council A. Richard Thiernau, Calumet Council Henry J. Voegtle, Circle Ten Council

JOIN THE NESA LEGACY SOCIETY By making a contribution to the national NESA endowment, you will help fund Eagle Scout scholarships, NESA committee service grants, career networking opportunities and more.

(Note: You must first become a James E. West Fellow in your local council.)

Visit nesa.org/PDF/542-121.pdf to make a contribution. All NESA LEGACY SOCIETY FELLOWS will be recognized with a unique certificate, a pin to wear on the James E. West knot and name recognition in the pages of Eagles’ Call magazine.

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COMMUNITY // Eagle Scout Projects

Building Devotion The 2014 Southern Region Adams Award Winner

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alk into most Roman Catholic churches, and you’ll find the Stations of the Cross — a set of plaques or other markers that commemorate 14 key moments in the last days of Jesus’ life.

Often placed along the walls of a sanctuary, the markers let the faithful take a virtual pilgrimage along Jerusalem’s famed Via Dolorosa.

St. Augustine Catholic Church in Signal Mountain, Tenn., now features the Stations of the Cross both inside its building and in a parklike setting. Creating the outdoor Stations was John Carlson’s Eagle Scout project, which won him the 2014 Adams Award for the Southern Region.

GOING FOR THE BRONZE: At first, John envisioned simple wooden markers, but the columbarium committee, led by parishioner Al Colonna, persuaded him to build stone pillars with bronze plaques instead.

John agreed — and promised to raise $16,000, or half of the project’s total cost.

“He didn’t blink an eye,” Colonna recalls.

“He said, ‘I’m going to get it done.’ ” SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS: John spoke about his project at Mass, set up donation tables in the fellowship hall and talked to anyone who would listen about sponsoring a station for $1,400 or making a smaller donation. He raised $25,000. “I’m really humbled by the support of the parishioners and the people who have helped me on this project,” he says.

John and a group of volunteers worked hard to make the park just right, aligning the pillars, pouring the concrete and stacking everything perfectly to create a tribute that will be enjoyed by others for years.

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EAGLES’ CALL

Eagle Scout John Carlson created a Stations of the Cross walking path outside his church in Signal Mountain, Tenn., depicting 14 events in the last days of Jesus’ life.

FROM LEFT: MARY BISCH CARLSON (7); COURTESY OF MARY BOVICH

DECIDING ON A PROJECT: When John approached Father Joseph Kuzhupil about project ideas, the church was in the midst of expanding its columbarium, an outdoor plaza that houses the ashes of deceased church members. The Stations of the Cross seemed a perfect addition to that project.

Eagle Scout Projects // COMMUNITY OTHER NOTABLE EAGLE PROJECTS RYAN MORONEY; DENVILLE, N.J.

WORKING AND WATCHING: John and his volunteers did much of the grunt work on the project, including digging footers, pouring concrete and hauling materials. They left the actual masonry work to the professionals. However, after watching the masons at work, John says he could give it “a pretty good effort” if someone handed him a trowel now.

TUNING IN TO THE STATIONS: John rarely comes to church on Sundays without seeing people walking among the Stations — and not just St. Augustine members. “Some of my

Filling Bellies and Warming Hearts New Jersey Eagle Project Leaves a Legacy

To raise funds, John set up tables at his church and talked to fellow parishioners about his ideas. He eventually chose bronze plaques instead of wooden markers.

friends’ parents have gone who aren’t even Catholic,” John says. Colonna agrees.

“I’ve gotten so many comments,” he says.

“I can’t tell you how much it’s added to our parish environment.”

An aspiring actor, Ryan Moroney wrote, directed, produced and performed in a show for his Eagle Scout project. Built around the theme “Dream,” the musical was designed to inspire children and teenagers with special needs to dream big.

Ryan’s friends performed songs from shows like Annie, Les Misérables and Wicked, while his fellow Scouts from Troop 118 served as stagehands, concession-stand workers, ushers and instrumentalists. “The Boy Scouts didn’t know much about theater, and the theater people didn’t know much about Boy Scouts,” Ryan says.

“Watching them work together was interesting.”

The highlight came when the special-needs kids joined the cast for Taylor Swift’s antibullying anthem, “Mean.” The number had many parents in tears. “They came up to me and said they’d never seen their kids dance and have that much fun before,” Ryan says.

A LASTING IMPRESSION: Colonna says John has the maturity of someone much older than a teenager. “We’re going to hear more from him as he grows into an adult,” Colonna says. work of volunteers who turned an unused basement room into functional space.

Maura Toomb, director of campus ministry, says David’s project has inspired other families to get more involved in outreach.

“They keep it well stocked,” she says. “It’s kind of like they were looking for this opportunity, and David’s repurposing this room and building it really allowed that to come to life.”

“It’s definitely going to leave a lasting impact,” David says. “I didn’t really expect it that much, but I was glad that it did.”

On one Saturday each month, close to 60 hungry families or individuals visit the food pantry at St. Peter’s Preparatory School in Jersey City, N.J., where they pick up groceries to help them get through the next month.

Senior David Bovich created the pantry as his Eagle Scout project and has volunteered in the pantry, which has become a requirement for the school’s sophomore retreat.

To design the space, David taught himself AutoCAD, a computer-aided design and drafting program. He then solicited more than $2,700 in To create a food pantry, David had to design the space on a computer, raise funds donations and oversaw the and supervise a group of volunteers for the construction.

GEOFFREY THOMAS RATH; OAKES, N.D. When he was 5, Geoffrey Rath decided his church, First Presbyterian Church of Oakes, N.D., needed an “elevator for elders.” A dozen years later, providing that elevator became his Eagle Scout service project.

Geoffrey raised $60,000 from church members, Troop 147 members and community organizations. Then, he and his volunteers gutted an unused stairwell, preparing it for contractors to install the three-level elevator.

Geoffrey’s project sparked a number of spinoff projects, including remodeled bathrooms, roof repairs, fresh paint in the basement and upgraded lighting. “One of the best benefits of the project was seeing our congregation mold together into one friendly, mean, lean, remodeling machine,” Geoffrey says. “First Presbyterian Church of Oakes has always been close, but this project brought us even closer.”

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LIFESTYLE // Author Brandon Mull

Have Imagination, Will Travel

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magination is everything for New York Times No. 1 best-selling author Brandon Mull. Over the past decade, Mull has transported countless young readers to imaginary worlds that, much like in the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia series, lie just out of view. His Fablehaven series explores a preserve in Connecticut for magical creatures like witches, imps and trolls, while his Five Kingdoms books start off in a “Halloween spook alley” that is a portal to another world.

Last fall, Boys’ Life readers got a taste of Mull’s imagination in “Monster Jamboree,” a short story in which a troop of ordinary Boy Scouts stumbles into a jamboree of Monster Scouts from such fictional councils as Transylvania, the Bermuda Triangle and

Necropolis. The story is full of inside Scouting jokes — one ghoulish Scout needs to earn the Lifetaking merit badge to become a Dragon Scout — that reveal a not-so-hidden side of Mull: He is an Eagle Scout.

He’s also the father of a new Cub Scout. Mull mixed the names of his son and a nephew to create the narrator’s name in “Monster Jamboree.” (Read the story at bookzone.boyslife. org/brandon-mull) Mull was active in Scouting in both Connecticut and California, and his fellow Scouts were among the first to hear his earliest stories. “There were many nights in tents and around campfires where I’d contribute a story,” he says.

While his imagination usually paid off, it backfired while earning his Wilderness Survival merit badge, which required him to spend the night alone at Camp Emerald Bay, a site known for its wild pigs.

“It’s a bad thing to have a good imagination when you’re alone in the dark,” he says. “Everything becomes a wild pig when you’re out there alone.”

Mull honed his craft through high school and college and wrote his first novel after graduating from Brigham Young University in 2000.

Agents and publishers rejected it, but Shadow Mountain Publishing saw promise in Mull and encouraged him to write Fablehaven. Six months after the Eagle Scout and best-selling author Brandon Mull says his stories are inspired by fellow fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.

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EAGLES’ CALL

book was published, in 2006, he quit his job as a marketing copywriter to write books full time. Nine years later, he’s the author of 15 books; his most recent, Five Kingdoms: Rogue Knight, appeared in November.

Mull’s books reflect his imagination, but they also reflect the values he learned in Scouting and in church.

He intentionally writes books that kids and parents can read together and never includes bad language or gratuitous violence. “I have a theory that if you have conscientious characters face tough choices, little lessons and values will almost naturally trickle out of that,” he says. “I let that be part of the story.”

Despite a busy writing schedule, Mull spends much of his time visiting schools and libraries across the country — logging nearly 2,000 visits in 38 states. While he includes short readings in his presentations, his real goal is to convince kids that reading and creating are fun. “I show them lots of pictures and do some interactive stuff. I bring some kids up on stage, and together we build an imaginary world. I just use every tool I can think of to make a case for why they should be reading and creating,” he says.

The theme of Mull’s presentations is “Imagination Can Take You Places.” Judging by his experience, it certainly can.

LAURA HANIFIN

Inside the Worlds of Author Brandon Mull

Green Guru Gear / Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch // LIFESTYLE

Waste Not, Want Not Creating New Adventures From Old Gear

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avidson Lewis can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse, but that might be his only limitation. The Eagle Scout’s company, Green Guru Gear, upcycles bike tubes, banners, wetsuits, climbing rope, tents, yoga mats and even street-sign discards into personal can coolers, wallets, messenger bags and more.

How much material does the company upcycle? About 37,000 pounds a year. Lewis guesses that 1 percent of America’s discarded bike tubes now end up in his Boulder, Colo., factory.

Lewis first started experimenting with bike tubes while working at a Virginia bike shop during high school. As the newbie, his job was to fix flat tires, which usually meant replacing an old tube that might have a single pinhole with a brand-new tube. Realizing that the shop was tossing a lot of tubes in the trash — 50 pounds a month —

he occasionally retrieved a few to make ankle straps or tie-downs for camping gear.

A class project in Virginia Tech’s productdesign program persuaded him to do even more. “It was a choice of using an environmentally friendly material or solving an environmental problem,” he says. “I kind of went for both.”

Ruckus 30L Backpack, Cyclepath Multi-Color Backpack, Dutchy Pannier

Lewis made his first bike-tube bag in 1999 and continued experimenting while designing products for Case Logic and an array of outdoor-gear manufacturers. A stint with Ripstop Repairs in Boulder further convinced him that there’s still life in many old outdoor products.

He incorporated Green Guru Gear in 2005 and launched the brand two years later.

Today, outdoor enthusiasts can drop off old gear at a growing network of retailers and walk out with a product made of similar materials. In doing so, Lewis says, they can further their commitment to treading lightly on the land.

“Purchasing gear should be a part of that conversation, too,” Lewis says. “Sustainable adventure is really our goal.”

Dollars That Make a Difference A Colorado Foundation Has a Heart for Scouting

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ust west of Denver, the Rocky Mountains rise up like a desert mirage. And that’s what they might as well be for inner-city kids who have little opportunity to scale their peaks, hike their trails or raft their rivers.

That is, unless those kids are involved in Scouting.

Thanks to the Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation, BSA councils across Colorado are able to share the magic of the outdoors with disadvantaged kids through campership programs and enhancements to camp facilities. The foundation has supported work at Denver Area Council’s Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, paid summer-camp fees for kids from the Great Southwest Council and even sent disadvantaged Scouts to the national jamboree.

The foundation supports Scouting because it knows Scouting works. “It’s not

just a blue-sky presumption,” says Eagle Scout Bill Ward, the foundation’s vice chairman. “It’s reinforced by what was our own experience.”

For Ward and Chairman and CEO William J. Hybl, that experience began in Scout Troop 17 in Pueblo, where the lifelong friends became Eagle Scouts and learned how

important the outdoors can be. “There’s no question that Scouting added another dimension to my life and experience,” Hybl says. “I truly was not an outdoorsperson. Living in Colorado, that may seem strange, but Scouting became my window for camping, for hiking and for being outside in this great state.”

Today, thanks to Hybl, Ward and other Eagle Scouts on the El Pomar board and staff, new generations of young people can enjoy similar experiences. Roughly half the foundation’s BSA support comes from the Cortlandt S. Dietler Scouting Opportunity Fund, named for a longtime board member of the Denver Area Council; the rest comes in competitive grants.

“We’ve seen how effective Scouting is with young people, and we believe it still is,” Ward says. “You gravitate to winners. You gravitate to groups that have success.”

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I Imagine i Dragons D lead l d singer i Dan D Reynolds R ld hasn’t forgotten his Scouting roots.

CHRIS McKAY/WIREIMAGE

By Bryan Wendell

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EAGLES’ CALL

efore he won a Grammy award, before his album went double-platinum, before he performed for millions on Saturday Night Live, Dan Reynolds was just a regular Scout.

He earned his Wolf, Bear and Webelos Scout badges, attended Boy Scout summer camp in Arizona and earned the Eagle Scout Award.

Now that he’s selling out arenas worldwide, the lead singer of Imagine Dragons can no longer be considered a regular guy. But if success has changed this Eagle Scout, it has only been for the better.

Eagles’ Call spoke to Reynolds by phone late last year from his home in Las Vegas. When talking to him, it’s clear right away he’s not your typical rock star. Words like “authentic” and “sincere” come to mind.

“I never wanted to be Mr. Rock ’n’ Roll,” he says. “Mr. Get-the-Girls-and-Fame-and-the-Attention. It’s not something that I want to be part of my life — not even for a moral reason. I just don’t have an interest in it.”

Sure enough, the 27-year-old’s bio doesn’t read like a blueprint to rock ’n’ roll stardom: Eagle Scout at 17, twoyear mission for the LDS church at 19, married at 23, father at 25, co-founder of a cancer-fighting charity at 26.

Through it all, music drives him. After shows, he’s up late — 3 or 4 a.m. — but he’s not partying. He’s writing music.

“I’m a pretty introverted person, so typically after the encore at the end of the night, I’ll head back to my hotel room wherever I am around the world and pull out my laptop and write,” he says. “I see it as my journal entry at the end of the night.”

For Smoke + Mirrors, the band’s second studio album that debuted in February, he wrote more than 100 songs that he and the band eventually pared down to the 13 that made the album.

With this new album, Imagine Dragons have their own big shoes to fill. Their first album, Night Visions, sold more than 4 million copies. It was Spotify’s most-streamed album of 2013. And it won Reynolds and his band a Grammy Award.

CONTINUED >>>

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PART OF A TEAM

A TRAVELING MAN The success of Night Visions birthed a worldwide tour consisting of more than 130 headline dates and 50 festivals across North America, all over Europe, and even into South America, Australia, Russia and Japan.

That means these days Reynolds sleeps in hotel rooms, not tents, a fact that sometimes has him longing for those days at Camp Geronimo.

“It was just good,” he says. “I made a lot of buddies and got to be like a dude.

That’s the main thing I feel like I took away from [Scouting] — a love for nature and camping and getting out of the city.”

A rock tour seems glamorous. A global rock tour especially so. Just look at some of the wish-you-were-there tour stops: Buenos Aires,

Argentina; Lisbon, Portugal; Melbourne, Australia. But a vacation it was not.

“We really don’t get much time to go see the city, honestly,” Reynolds says. “We typically fly in, have a sound check, do some interviews, get on the stage, then fly out and go on to the next city.”

That’s why he’s eager for another taste of adventure and exploration — something he learned to appreciate in Scouting and intends to pass on to his daughter.

“I feel like, especially in my career, it can be really suffocating at times,” he says.

“It’s a bit much, and the industry can be a bit much at times. So it’s nice to just take a break and go see the world for what it really is, which is the mountains and the rivers and the lakes and camping.”

CLEAN, BUT NOT WHITEWASHED Censors must love Imagine Dragons. Parents, too.

You won’t find any offensive language in their lyrics, and their songs don’t objectify women or encourage illicit drug use or promote violence.

This isn’t Eagle Scout lead singer Dan Reynolds being holier than thou. This is just Reynolds being himself.

“The whole point of what rock ’n’ roll is, to me — all it means is just being authentic to yourself,” he says. “Rock ’n’ roll, to me, is you do whatever is real for you, whether it’s cool or not. And that’s what’s cool.

To be cool is to be yourself.”

Though Reynolds usually gets the spotlight, the frontman makes it clear Imagine Dragons wouldn’t function without guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman.

Egos have no place in Imagine Dragons, Reynolds says. Not after all they’ve been through together.

In Imagine Dragons’ origin story, you won’t find the phrases “overnight success” or “reality show winners” or any of the other instant routes to fame. They formed in 2008. They put out a few EPs. They had a grassroots following. But the real breakthrough didn’t come until 2012.

“Before those years, we were nothing,” Reynolds says. “We were playing small clubs. We’ve been robbed together. Our van has broken down. We were poor, living in a small house together for years. So you go through that, and when you get here it makes you be able to get the ego in check.”

And if Imagine Dragons had blown up overnight instead?

“I think it would’ve messed all of us up,” he says. “And we would’ve probably all been like, ‘Oh, it’s all about us.’ But I think we have eyes enough to see now that it’s not about us. It’s about the music.”

WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS Success hasn’t changed Reynolds, but it does have its perks.

The band could afford only a rented studio to record Night Visions. After that

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES FOR CBGB; MICHAEL TRAN/FILMMAGIC; KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES FOR NARAS; MAT HAYWARD/GETTY IMAGES; RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES; FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES; THINKSTOCK BY GETTY IMAGES

Dan Reynolds energizes crowds in (clockwise from top left) New York City, Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia. The band won Top Rock Artist at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, with trophies going to (from left) Ben McKee, Daniel Platzman, Reynolds and Wayne Sermon.

album’s runaway success, the band built a musician’s playground where they spent six months recording Smoke + Mirrors.

“We had, like, negative $1,000 to our name before Night Visions,” he says, “so it certainly helped to be able to have the success and have the monetary means to be able to really make the studio we wanted.”

Reynolds and his bandmates searched through 50 houses in Las Vegas to find one that checked all the boxes: good acoustics, space for separate drum and vocal rooms, swimming pool.

“We sent our manager on a million different missions to see all these different houses,” Reynolds says. “And we found one, and it’s just in a really typical neighborhood in Las Vegas. It was a normal house.”

That is, until they gutted it, adding soundproofing, speakers, compressors, microphones, gold wallpaper and a Jacuzzi in the drum room. (Because why not?)

“We’d been in enough studios that we knew the vibe that we wanted,” Reynolds says. “It just feels like home.”

SERVICE BEFORE SELF The same day Eagles’ Call talked to Reynolds, he took his wife and daughter to the Opportunity Village Magical Forest in Las Vegas, where there was a Christmas display decorated with millions of lights and hundreds of trees.

Fortuitous timing, because Opportunity Village, a nonprofit that helps people with intellectual disabilities, is where Reynolds completed his Eagle Scout service project.

He built retaining walls and planted more than 50 trees, and he quickly realized

manual labor wasn’t the hardest part.

“Anybody who does an Eagle project knows the most work of it is actually planning it, getting it all together,” he says.

“Honestly, it was way more work than I thought it would be. But we got a lot of volunteers out, and it was really a great experience for me to be able to learn how to organize things and be a part of helping the community.”

He’s still at it today. In 2013, Reynolds and his bandmates created the Tyler Robinson Foundation, named for a 17-yearold Imagine Dragons fan who died from a rare form of cancer in his bone marrow.

There’s a touching video online of Tyler attending an Imagine Dragons show at a small venue in 2011. He’s in the front row, on the shoulders of another fan, and though the place is packed, it’s clear Reynolds is singing “It’s Time” just for Tyler. That was Tyler’s favorite song.

Reynolds leans in, forehead to forehead, so he and Tyler can sing part of the final chorus together. When the song ends, the crowd erupts into a chant: “Tyler! Tyler!

Tyler!”

Tyler died two years later, but Reynolds keeps his memory alive. He says Scouting forged in him a drive to help other people like Tyler at all times.

Last year, with Tyler’s family in attendance at a sold-out show in Tulsa, Okla., Reynolds’ voice cracked as he announced Imagine Dragons would donate all of the night’s proceeds to the Tyler Robinson Foundation.

Then they performed “It’s Time.”

“This is for you, Tyler,” he told the crowd. “I know that you’re here somewhere,

Below: Dan Reynolds shows his percussion skills at a concert in Seattle. Top right: He slows things down to perform with Imagine Dragons during “The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles” in Los Angeles.

and your legacy lives on forever and ever.”

As for the band’s legacy, Reynolds and Imagine Dragons continue to prove they aren’t the typical rock band in search of fame at all costs.

“We definitely try as a band to continually find ways to look outside ourselves — not even with a purpose of saying, ‘Hey, look at us. We’re good people doing good things.’

Really just because, even selfishly, it keeps our heads grounded,” Reynolds says. “And it helps us to remember the real reasons we’re doing these things. It’s bigger than us.”

ESSENTIAL IMAGINE DRAGONS Not familiar with Billboard’s “Breakthrough Band of 2013”? Get up to speed by listening to these five essential Imagine Dragons tracks, listed in the order released. f “It’s Time” – The band’s first single. An infectious tune with a catchy mandolin backdrop.

Heard in numerous commercials and TV shows, including Glee. f “Radioactive” – Unquestionably the band’s biggest hit so far. Won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance. A high-energy, driving electronic rock song. f “Demons” – 2014’s Alternative Rock Song of the Year in the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Showcases Dan Reynolds’ strong vocal abilities. f “On Top of the World” – A bright, upbeat song that contrasts well with some of the darker songs on Night Visions. Lyrics celebrate the band’s success after years of struggling. f “I Bet My Life” – The lead single on the band’s second album, Smoke + Mirrors. Reynolds has said the song is about the relationship he’s had with his parents through the years. “At times it’s been strained and difficult, but in the end, ‘I Bet My Life’ celebrates the bond that we still hold on to,” he told Spin magazine last year.

13 13

CALM BEFORE THE

STORM For Reed Timmer, Eagle Scout storm chaser, the sky’s no limit.

By Mark Ray

A

s the Isuzu Rodeo flew down the muddy Kansas farm road in May 2004, Reed Timmer rolled down the passenger-side window, video camera at the ready. After experiencing two days of blue-sky busts across Nebraska and Kansas, he hoped to finally capture video of

the massive storm just ahead. Meanwhile, Dean Schoenick, his friend and driver, fought to keep the SUV on the road, correcting his course each time the wheels lost traction.

Then, just as hail began battering the windshield, the Isuzu entered a skid that Schoenick couldn’t control. Within seconds, the SUV was on its right side and filling with foul, murky water. As the young storm chasers struggled out of their seatbelts and tried to retrieve their waterlogged gear, a man in a cowboy W. GARTH DOWLING

hat hurried over from a nearby farm. “Let’s get you out of there,” the man said.

“You’re sitting in sewage runoff.”

For Timmer, then a meteorology graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, it was just another day at the office.

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EAGLES’ CALL

Riding out a tornado in a car? Bad idea.

Fortunately, Reed Timmer’s Dominator is no ordinary car. Its armor, bulletproof windows and anchoring spikes protect him so he can do serious research.

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‘‘WHEN YOU’RE INSIDE, IT’S ALMOST TRANSLUCENT; YOU CAN SEE OUTSIDE THE FUNNEL AND EVERYTHING.’’

A decade later, Timmer continues to chase tornadoes — and all sorts of other extreme weather — with the same youthful exuberance that fueled that 2004 trip. These days, however, he no longer relies on borrowed cars (nor does he have to stop at roadside motels to find Internet connections). He owns a small fleet of three storm-research vehicles he calls the Dominators. Built on truck chassis, these armored vehicles feature roll cages, bulletproof Lexan windows, steel armor strengthened with a polyethylene Kevlar composite and even hydraulic anchoring spikes designed to secure the Dominators to the ground when a tornado passes. Picture the Batmobile on steroids.

Of course, most people would trade hydraulic anchoring spikes for an eightcylinder engine that would get them out of a tornado’s path, but Timmer’s goal is different.

He wants to get as close to tornadoes as possible. In fact, he has videotaped roughly 800 of them and was one of the first people to shoot high-definition video from inside a tornado.

So what’s that experience like? “When 16 16

EEAAGL GLES EESS’ CA CALL CALL LL

you’re inside, it’s almost translucent; you can see outside the funnel and everything,” he says. “Your ears are popping, and it’s always in the back of your mind that the vehicle might go airborne. It’s not really an enjoyable feeling, but you do get a sense of accomplishment.”

UNLOCKING SECRETS The experience of being inside a tornado also allows Timmer to capture a lot of data, which is the whole point of his storm chasing. Despite all the fancy weather technology TV stations brag about, fixed-radar stations can’t really capture much data about tornadoes. For one thing, they don’t have enough resolution. For another, they are usually too far away to capture the information. “Farther away from the radar site, it’s getting higher and higher above the ground because of the beam angle,” Timmer says.

Of course, tornadoes cause damage at ground level, not up in the clouds, and much of that damage is caused by suction vortices, which are mini-tornadoes that form as a tornado encounters surface friction. “Inside those suction vortices is where

it really, really packs a punch,” Timmer says. “Some computer simulations have even shown that the wind speeds could approach the speed of sound on a real small scale in those suction vortices.”

Timmer hopes to eventually capture a 3-D X-ray of a tornado on the ground by surrounding it with his three Dominators, each equipped with a portable Doppler radar system. “We’re still about $5 million short of getting a few more radars,” he says.

“It might take a few more years, but we’ll get there eventually.”

In the meantime, he relies on a host of other tools, including drones and parachute probes. Shot into a tornado with an air cannon, these probes measure temperature, moisture and barometric pressure five times a second, giving researchers more data points to ponder.

FROM SCOUTING TO STORM CHASING If Timmer has come a long way since his baptism by sewage runoff, he has come

W. GARTH DOWLING (3); COURTESY OF REED TIMMER (4); THINKSTOCK BY GETTY IMAGES

BATMOBILE ON STEROIDS

Reed Timmer gets up close and personal with tornadoes, but his goal is more than entertainment. This selfconfessed science nerd gathers essential storm data.

Insets, from left: His Dominator vehicles have switches that control anchoring spikes. Small sensors sucked into tornadoes send back data, while GoPro cameras mounted to a heavy base are placed in the tornado’s path.

even further since his high-school days, when he “chased” his first storm by videotaping a severe thunderstorm in his Grand Rapids, Mich., front yard. That storm destroyed his family’s VHS camcorder but launched his career.

A self-confessed science nerd — he became a National Science Olympiad champion in tree identification in 1997 — Timmer grew up loving all sorts of weather. As a Scout in Troop 334, he reveled in the chance to face Mother Nature head on. Not surprisingly, one of his fondest Scouting memories is of the southern Ontario outing when the troop’s campsite flooded and he saw his first moose. “I was a lot more afraid of the moose than the flooding, but I remember that being really awesome,” he says.

Timmer earned several nature-related badges — including Weather, of course — but his biggest takeaways from Scouting involved lessons in leadership and preparedness, lessons he still relies on. For example, as he and fellow Eagle Scout Connor McCrorey chased Superstorm Sandy in 2012, they reviewed the procedure for building a snow cave as the storm dumped 30-plus inches of snow in the remote West Virginia mountains. “I was kind of hoping the vehicle would get stuck so I’d have an excuse,” he says.

After surviving the latest storm, Reed Timmer’s Dominator needs a wash but is structurally intact.

says. “Sadly, he’s paralyzed from the waist down, but he survived. It looks like there’s a chance he could walk again with a lot of hard work.” (Timmer later bought the man’s community a tornado shelter.)

A STORMY CAREER

While the Scout motto (Be Prepared) is important to Timmer, the Scout slogan (Do a Good Turn Daily) comes into play when he beats first responders to a disaster scene. When a tornado hit Yazoo City, Miss., in April 2010, downed trees delayed first responders, so Timmer and his crew went door to door pulling people from damaged buildings.

At one point, they helped transport a man with a neck injury to a backboard and carried him half a mile to a waiting helicopter. “We reconnected later,” Timmer

For most people, storm chasing is a hobby, but Timmer has made it a career. He began selling storm videos to TV networks in 1999 and in 2003 founded a tornado website, TornadoVideos.net, which became TVNweather.com in 2012. He also works as a storm chaser for KFOR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City, and runs stormchasing tours for fellow tornado buffs.

This spring, he hopes to put the finishing touches on his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oklahoma.

From 2008 to 2011, Timmer was featured on Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers, which followed chase teams around Tornado Alley and beyond. In 2012, he created the on-demand series Tornado Chasers, which received Webby Award honors in the documentary and editing categories.

In addition to his 800 or so tornadoes, Timmer has chased 15 hurricanes and countless blizzards. He survived Hurricane Floyd in a single-wide mobile home and

rode out Hurricane Katrina in a Slidell, La., police station. (The police chief, thinking Timmer and fellow chaser Simon Brewer were looters, had intercepted the pair as the chief patrolled the town in a borrowed dump truck.)

After nearly two decades of chasing storms, Timmer concedes that he’s getting a little more cautious. These days, he’s plenty happy to send drones into tornadoes rather than go inside himself.

Of course, someone has to get close enough to launch those drones, and Timmer always stands ready. “Sometimes you’ve got to bite the bullet for science,” he says.

Keep Up With the Chase

Find Reed Timmer on Facebook (facebook.com/ ReedTimmerTVN), Twitter (@reedtimmertvn) or Instagram (@reedtimmer). Or check out his website, tvnweather.com.

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ACHIEVEMENTS // For God and Country / Once an Eagle ...

For God and Country

Once an Eagle ...

Many young men exchange their Scout uniforms for fatigues, dress blues or battle dress uniforms. NESA salutes the Eagle Scouts shown below who are serving our nation in all branches of the armed forces. Recognize another Eagle by completing the form found at nesa.org/eaglegodandcountry.

... Always an Eagle. NESA remembers Eagle Scouts who have passed. Recognize the life of another Eagle by completing the form found at nesa.org/ eaglegonehome. This link also provides more information on how to make a Living Memorial donation in the name of a deceased Eagle.

2nd Lt. Logan W. Bolitho U.S. Army

Thomas H. Kraft U.S. Navy

Graduated from West Point on May 28, 2014, with a Bachelor of Science in systems engineering.

He will be stationed at Fort Carson, Colo., after completion of Basic Officer Leaders Course at Fort Lee, Va.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2014, he is attending a Basic Division Officer Course in San Diego, training to become an officer aboard the USS Freedom.

2nd Lt. Lawrence Cavins U.S. Army Graduated from West Point in May 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering. He will report to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., for further training and then proceed to his duty station at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Tyler Christopher Eisenhauer U.S. Army Serving in Afghanistan as a Blackhawk medevac pilot.

2nd Lt. John Christopher Long U.S. Army Graduated from West Point in May 2013 with a degree in economics. He is based at Fort Stewart, Ga. Long received his Eagle Scout award from Troop 175 Scout leader Col. Jeffery Shafer.

Lt. Nathan A. Moss Sr., M.D. U.S. Navy Completed the six-month Undersea Medical Officer Course at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute in Groton, Conn. In addition to receiving certification in submarine and radiation medicine, he also completed Navy dive school, becoming a U.S. Navy diver at the Navy Dive and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla.

Airman 1st Class Timothy Foote U.S. Air Force

Lt. Brian J. Robinson U.S. Navy

Completed basic training in November 2013, and has completed the basic loadmaster course and survival training.

He is stationed with the 58th Training Squadron at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M.

Graduated with a global executive Master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and is an Eagle Scout from Troop 2, Tolland, Conn.

2nd Lt. Patrick R.K. Gallagher U.S. Army Earned his Bachelor of Arts in international studies with minors in near-Eastern languages and civilization (Arabic) from the University of Washington-Seattle.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry branch.

Will report to Fort Campbell, Ky., for his first assignment.

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EAGLES’ CALL

Lt. Col. Eric L. Warner U.S. Air Force Retired May 2014 after 24 years of service as a civil engineer officer. Received his commission via the Air Force Officer Training School, and has worked at all levels of the Air Force from base-level jobs to the Pentagon, as well as serving in a Joint Special Operations tour. He has deployed to multiple combat locations in Africa and the Middle East. He continues his journey as a civil engineer as a civilian at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

Austin P. Brashears, 21 Huntington Beach, Calif.

Eagle: 2009 Passed: May 2012 Thomas H. Brashears, 83 Phoenix, Ariz.

Eagle: 1947 Passed: August 2013 Trevor Crouse, 15 Anthem, Ariz.

Eagle: April 3, 2014 Passed: Aug. 8, 2014 Steven Lynn Greer Jr., 23 King George County, Va. Eagle: 2008 Passed: Jan. 19, 2014 Reid B. Huffman, 20 Gastonia, N.C. Eagle: 2012 Passed: March 9, 2014 Calvin K. Kawamoto, 73 Hilo, Hawaii Eagle: 1958 Passed: September 2013 Ralph A. Lundvall, 91 Kirkland, Wash.

Eagle: 1937 Passed: March 2014 Richard William Morris, 87 Poland, Ohio Eagle: 1941 Passed: Feb. 26, 2014 Holt T. Smith, 20 Houston, Texas Eagle: 2010 Passed: March 2013 Christopher Glenn Tanner, 42 Jefferson, Md. Eagle: 1989 Passed: March 22, 2014 Nathan Walter, 16 Twin Lakes, Wis. Eagle: 2013 Passed: June 2013

Awards & Recognition // ACHIEVEMENTS

Awards & Recognition Eagle Scouts shine, even after reaching the top honor in Scouting. NESA celebrates the achievements of the Eagle Scouts shown below. Recognize the success of an Eagle by completing the form found at nesa.org/eaglemagawards.

Matthew L. Arsenault Grand Forks, N.D. Graduated with a doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma. He will be working as a behavioral research scientist in Monterey, Calif.

William Barnes Sweeny, Texas The chief executive officer of Sweeny Community Hospital received the Texas Hospital Association’s 2013 Pioneer Award in recognition of his creative and innovative leadership of a rural hospital.

Col. Garth Holmes Olympia, Wash.

The member of the Pacific Harbors Council received the Lions International Scouting Service Award. He will assume a position as Scouting liaison between his local council and his Lions district.

Joseph Phillips Fond du Lac, Wis. Graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music Education degree in choral and general music from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in May 2014. He is employed in the Black River Falls (Wis.) School District as a choral teacher for grades seven through 12.

Shaun Ray Jones Fayetteville, N.C. Recognized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of North Carolina as the North Carolina Scout of the Year 2012-2013. He is a sophomore pre-med student at Duke University.

James Sharp St. Peters, Mo. Earned his bachelor’s degree in personal finance from Lindenwood University. He works for Commerce Bank in St. Louis.

James Streilein Tyler Morgen Burns Briscoe Huntington Beach, Calif.

Graduated from Vanguard University in May 2013 with a double major of history and political science. After three mission trips to China with the university, he followed his calling and interviewed for a teaching position in China. He has been teaching English to elementary-age children since graduation and has signed another one-year contract.

Dr. Michael A. Krew Canton, Ohio Graduated with a Master of Science in healthcare quality and patient safety from Northwestern University in June 2014. He previously earned his medical degree from Northwestern in 1982. He is a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine at Aultman Hospital in Canton.

Scott Andrew Lagravinese Gary Cimperman Sharon, Pa. Awarded the 2014 Assistant Tennis Pro of the Year for the U.S. Professional Tennis Association’s Southern Division.

Tigard, Ore. Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. He will be attending graduate school at Pacific University in Hillsboro, Ore.

Burke, Va. Retired after 39 years as a federal civilian employee with the Department of Defense, including 22 years of Senior Executive Service. His last position was at the three-star level: Deputy Director Operational Test and Evaluation OSD for Netcentric, Space, Missile Defense and Cybersecurity. He has received many awards during the years, among them: the OSD Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive Service, the National Defense Industrial Association Hollis Award for Lifetime Achievement in Test and Evaluation, and the International Test and Evaluation Association award.

Ian Toppett Robert J. DeSousa Harrisburg, Pa. Graduated on June 6, 2014, from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., with a master’s in strategic studies. DeSousa serves as a colonel in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. He is the state judge advocate and the state director for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.

Ryan Ehrhardt River Ridge, La. Graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Louisiana State University, where he was named to Leadership LSU 2014 as one of the top 35 leaders of this year’s 6,000-member senior class.

Joseph R. Gochnour Houston, Texas Earned his license as a dietitian in the state of Texas and opened a private nutrition and fitness business, Nutrition and Fitness Professional LLC. Gochnour received his Bachelor of Science in nutritional sciences/kinesiology at Penn State University in 2009. He then earned a master’s in exercise physiology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Brackon Lundy Lee’s Summit, Mo. Awarded his white coat in physical therapy, signifying his transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences, in a ceremony at Rockhurst University Graduate School. He will spend the final year working at clinics across the country, receiving his doctorate in May 2015.

Lundy graduated from the University of Central Missouri in 2011 with a degree in exercise science.

Mark J. Naegely Voorhees Township, N.J. Received his Juris Doctor from Drexel University School of Law on May 21, 2014. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Delaware in 2011.

Eric Ottenbacher Silverdale, Wash.

Graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., with a Bachelor of Arts in German and psychology. He studied for five months at AlbertLudwigs-Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, and also worked as a German language consultant at the PLU Language Resource Center.

Frankfort, Ill. Earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Lewis University in Illinois in May 2014. Also accepted a graduate assistant position and free tuition toward a master’s program in cybersecurity for fall 2014.

Glenn Troast Lighthouse Point, Fla. Was sworn in as mayor of Lighthouse Point, Fla., on March 18, 2014. Troast is also the Cubmaster of Pack 238 in Lighthouse Point and the founder and president of TN Partners, an accounting firm specializing in delivering solutions to complex business and tax matters. Troast, a certified public accountant, has recently been recognized as one of the top litigation-consulting accountants in South Florida.

Jacob Alan Waterman Charlevoix, Mich.

Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in software engineering from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. He’s employed with Jackson National Life Insurance Company.

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ACHIEVEMENTS // Family Affair

Eagle Scouting Is a Family Affair Scouting’s highest honor is best shared with other generations of family members. Join NESA in celebrating the families of Eagle Scouts shown below. Recognize the Eagles in your own family by completing the form found at nesa.org/eaglefamilyaffair.

Brown Family Troy, Mont.

Kreitman Family Potomac, Md.

Pettis Family Arvada, Colo.

TJ Brown (1992), Trevor Brown (2005) and Michael Brown (2013)

Leonard S. Kreitman (1980), Robert J. Kreitman (1975), Meir L. Kreitman (2013), Benjamin L. Kreitman (2010), Matthew S. Kreitman (2007) and Marshall M. Kreitman (1951; deceased)

Jason Pettis (1985) and Ben Pettis (2014)

Cross Family Clifton, N.J.

Piantoni Family Buena Park, Calif.

Lisak Family Orland Hills, Ill.

Timothy Cross Jr. (2014), Ricky Tomaiko (2000), Tim Cross Sr. (1973) and William Cross Jr. (1973)

Duffett Family Alexandria, Va.

Benton S. Duffett Jr. (1952), Benton S. Duffett IV (2014) and Benton S. Duffett III (1978)

Duvall Family Aylett, Va.

Kyle Lisak (2014) and Rich Lisak Jr. (1986)

Leo Piantoni (1939, deceased), Eugene Piantoni (1940, deceased), Donald Piantoni (1950) and David Piantoni (1974)

McCarthy Family Sharpsburg, Ga.

Powell Family Westwood, Mass.

Sean McCarthy (Hornaday Award; 2012) and Jim McCarthy (Silver Beaver; 1969)

Paul Powell Jr. (1977), Robert Powell Jr. (2009), Jake Powell (2013), Paul Powell Sr. (1946), Robert Powell Sr. (1979), David Powell (1979), kneeling: Michael Gaffey (1993)

Messana Family Tonawanda, N.Y.

Starr Family San Diego, Calif.

John M. Brown (shown in framed picture; 1929), William J. Duvall Jr. (1987) and William J. Duvall III (2013)

Gutke Family Palm Harbor, Fla.

Adam Messana (2012), Matthew Messana (2006) and Michael Messana (2003)

Murphy Family Ithaca, N.Y.

Gary Starr (1970), Max Audick (2013), Bunny Starr and Aaron Staley (2004)

Womack Family Salem, Va.

Chuck Gutke (1953), Steve Gutke (1986) and Andrew Gutke (2013)

20

EAGLES’ CALL

Thomas Murphy (2012) and Liam Murphy (1979) Philip Womack (2002), Lynn Womack (1967) and Peter Womack (2000)

CLOSING SHOT // Reflecting on 100 Years

www.NESA.org

photograph by

CHRIS BRIGHTWELL // EAGLE 1998

For Arrowman (and Eagle Scout) Chris Brightwell, his Vigil Honor calling-out ceremony at the Coosa Lodge in Delta, Ala., had a profound impact on his life. “It gave me a tremendous opportunity to look back on Scouting and reflect on my friendships and experiences,” he says.

SPRING 2015

Eagles’ Call

™

Brightwell isn’t the only Scout reflecting this year. He joins thousands of Arrowmen who will honor the 100th anniversary of the Order of the Arrow. A yearlong celebration includes the ongoing ArrowTour, the National Order of the Arrow Conference (Aug. 3 to 8 at Michigan State University) and various service projects across the country. Find more details about these events at oa-bsa.org.

– Gretchen Sparling

Calling all Eagle Scout photographers: We’re looking for images that represent the essence of Eagle Scouting. Send an email to eaglescoutmag@scouting.org with your name, the year you achieved Eagle and any low-resolution images that you’d like us to consider.

We’ll showcase our favorites on future “Closing Shot” pages.

SPRING 2015

21

… Always an Eagle Eagle Scout® Sport Watch 22072 $49.99 Swiss Army® Eagle Scout® Explorer Knife 619626 $49.99 Also available in white and orange.

Swiss Army® Classic SD Knife with Eagle Scout® Logo 619627 $24.99

Eagle Scout® Knife Coin 14227 $39.99

Eagle Scout® Memory Box 611430 $34.99

Four Percent: The Story of Uncommon Youth in a Century of American Life 619128 $14.98

Eagle Scout® 14" Statue 620594 $79.99

Eagle Scouts: A Centennial History 614778 $24.95

Selection varies by store; always available online.