Owen Huffman wasn’t even sure he wanted to go into Boy Scouts at the end of fifth grade.
He’s now an Eagle Scout.
Conversely, his Troop 20 counterpart, Jonathan Simmons, always wanted to achieve that honor, from his first days as a Boy Scout back in June 2018.
He earned it as well.
It’s those kinds of stories that make Arnie Rothenbaum proud.
“A kid who ends up becoming an Eagle Scout was driven at an early age and it’s inherent in their culture and who they are,” said Rothenbaum, assistant scoutmaster for Troop 20, out of Ascension Catholic Church in Oak Park.
Becoming an Eagle Scout isn’t easy, and Rothenbaum should know – his sons Isaac (2007) and Nathan (2012) were so honored. He said only about 6% of all scouts ever have achieved that status, which translates to about 2 million Eagles over more than a century.
In addition to working their way up through the scouting ranks over their years of scouting, Huffman and Simmons had to earn 21 merit badges and complete a final, and permanent, project.
Huffman, a senior at St. Ignatius High School, built a gaga ball pit for Ascension School, his K-8 alma mater. Simmons, a senior at Maine West High School, attended Holmes Elementary and Brooks Middle School in Oak Park before moving to Des Plaines prior to his freshman year. His project was building a shed to store cleanup supplies for Des Plaines nonprofit Clean Up – Give Back.
Sounds easy?
Wrong. Way, way wrong.
The two scouts were essentially project managers, determining the course of every aspect of their respective efforts, from materials acquisition to budget, and directing teams of younger scouts and parent volunteers that did the actual final build.
“It just really opened my eyes to other people’s time and viewpoint,” Simmons said. “It got me to work with other people and communicate with them. How to approach each step you’re going to take.”
For example, Clean Up – Give Back cleans up after mass gatherings, and takes recyclable material and provides it to larger firms to create composite material that are used to make park benches. Simmons knew he wanted to make his shed out of these composites.
But in his research, he learned that one type of composite was more durable – and expensive – than another. Composites are also more costly and heavier than wood.
That’s not all. He and his mom, Debbie, acquired a plan for a shed and he had to have the composite and some wood parts specially cut. That ultimately went into an instruction manual that the scout and volunteer teams used for assembly. But before that could happen, he had to coordinate transportation for his team. The ultimate build took about six hours over two days. The shed is used to house trash bags, plastic gloves, reflective vests, trash grabbers and buckets.
Gaga ball is a game played in an octagonal pit with wooden sides that are two-feet tall, so Huffman, too, had to plan out every minute detail in addition to procuring materials and researching guidelines.
“The biggest (factor) was that it needed to be portable for Ascension, so the wood had to be lighter weight,” Huffman said. “I had to find a way to make this easily come apart and be easily reassembled by a teacher.”
He, too, had to coordinate manpower, giving older scouts and a few volunteer adults the bigger tasks, and more manageable tasks for the youngsters. There was a job for everyone, whether it was sanding or painting.
What did he learn about project management, which included generation of a final report that was around 30 pages?
“I learned that it definitely isn’t the easiest thing to do,” he said. “There is always something that might go wrong and you have to adjust on the fly. If you trust the people around you and respect the people around you, it makes it easier to get things done.”
All Eagle Scouts seem to have bright futures, and Huffman and Simmons are no exception.
“Saying I’m an Eagle Scout, people will rely on me,” said Simmons, who will head off to Weber State in Utah in the fall, adding another benefit will be “preparedness, in the sense of how being in scouts has molded me, and also connections.”
Ditto for Huffman, who is in the final stages of collegiate decision-making.
“I certainly hope it is looked upon positively and shows a sense of my leadership skills I’ve gained throughout scouting,” he said. “I hope that it helps me professionally.”