Boy Scouts of America Troop 204 recognized five of its own Monday as Eagle Scouts.
Aidan Singletary, Charlie Medders, Brendan Wood, Jack Hall and Dylan Diamond completed the extensive requirements to earn the rank, which includes earning a minimum of 21 merit badges, participating in 18 hours of community services, staying active in a troop for at least 16 months and holding leadership roles.
Planning and leading a community service project to improve or otherwise benefit a religious or educational organization, or the community at large, is one of the final requirements to earn Eagle rank.
“People will expect more of you, and you will expect more of yourself,” Hall said during an opening address.
Singletary, a homeschooled senior, built picnic tables at College Place United Methodist Church in memory of Donald Nunn while Diamond, a junior at Brunswick Christian Academy, built a free library at the school. Medders graduated from Brunswick High School in May and now attends College of Coastal Georgia. He built Leopold benches for the native plant garden at Altama Plantation. Hall, a junior at Glynn Academy, and Wood, a sophomore at GA, both helped improve MorningStar Children and Family Services. Hall rehabilitated the fence, and Wood created an outdoor sitting park.
Going well above the minimum, Diamond earned two bronze palms, along with gold and silver palms. Palms are pins attached to an Eagle Scout’s medal ribbon that indicate merit badges earned beyond what’s required to earn Eagle Scout.
A bronze represents five merit badges earned over that requirement, a gold represents 10 and a silver represents 15. They’re earned in order, so once silver is earned, another five badges net a scout another bronze palm.
“As rare as Eagle rank is, palms are rarer. Only one in 10 earn a palm,” Hall said.
Earning the rank is certainly a major time commitment. Diamond had been in the program for three years and Hall for 10, while Singletary started in the Cub Scouts program in first grade.
“It’s definitively something that sets you apart and gives you great gratification,” Hall said. “It says a lot to your own character — and the people around me, their character — that we earned Eagle.”
Wood said the program teaches lifelong skills and perseverance.
“It means you’re ready to put in the work to get where you need to be,” Singletary added.
According to the Coastal Georgia Council’s website, 83 scouts from troops in the coastal region earned the rank in 2021. Of those, 10 were in Glynn County troops, only outpaced by Camden, Effingham and Chatham counties.
For more information about Troop 204, contact Lindsey Singletary at [email protected].