{"id":2735,"date":"2021-03-16T19:05:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T23:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=2735"},"modified":"2021-03-16T19:05:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T23:05:07","slug":"march-16-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2021\/03\/march-16-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"MARCH 16, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

[NO. 670 \u2013 20TH YEAR OF HELPING SCOUTS, SCOUTERS, & PARENTS]<\/span><\/p>\n

To reach the Eagle rank, a Scout will have learned dozens of new skills and completed hundreds of specific requirements through the seven ranks and no less than 21 merit badges. Although the Scout\u2019s Eagle Scout Service Project is just one of these hundreds, it\u2019s often the one most well-known. This is because this project is the combination and culmination of the most critical skills learned through Scouting: Service to others, creativity, planning ahead, and leadership, to mention the most often cited.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reger, who lives in the extreme northwestern county of Washoe, Nevada, is an Eagle Scout who successfully completed one of the most unusual\u2014and highly needed\u2014service projects I\u2019ve ever come to know.<\/p>\n

Lee Murray, of the Sierra Nevada District, Nevada Area Council, wrote to me about this. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I’d share this with you and your readers. For one of my Scouting roles, I have the pleasure of coordinating and scheduling my district\u2019s Eagle Scout boards of review. As we know, all candidates for this highly valued rank are amazing. But occasionally we run across a young man or young woman who is extraordinary. Matthew Reger is one. For his service project, Matthew took a very sensitive and personal subject and developed a completely unique service project that initially didn\u2019t fit neatly into any prior template for what an Eagle Service Project should look like. For those who needed to give it a green light, it took some real out-of-the-box thinking\u2014which is exactly what Matthew has done to create it. Approval came forth, and Matthew and his team successfully completed it. It became the centerpiece of our conversation with him at his review. (That\u2019s also when I learned that my own 14-year-old son is one of those who had a role in influencing<\/strong> Matthew to carry out this particular project.) Yours in Scouting, Lee.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was Matthew\u2019s service project aimed at? TEEN SUICIDE. Here\u2019s an excerpt from a speech to the teachers at his high school, that he\u2019d delivered to promote his suicide prevention plan and its components:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to\u2026give you resources to help prevent (teen) suicide in Washoe County. I was inspired to do this in honor of (teen\u2019s name) and (teen\u2019s name), two boys who committed suicide in 2019. They were both 14 years old. One was a Scout with me and the other was a boy I had known through my mom\u2019s business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWashoe County\u2019s (teen) suicide rate is more than double the national average.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone commits suicide, they leave behind family and friends\u2026who then struggle. I know how hard it can be to recover after the loss of a loved one because my dad died in a helicopter crash\u2026when I was just seven.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c(I have kits) for you and this presentation and some helpful handouts are on a USB flash drive in the kits.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lee has told me that one file is Matthew\u2019s presentation to groups and the second is the Awareness Kit he and his team developed. I\u2019ve tried to attach them to this issue, but no luck! But I\u2019m sure Lee wouldn\u2019t mind sending them to you: leemurrayaia@yahoo.com<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Please put these to use \u2013 The life you may save could be\u2026<\/p>\n

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nHappy Scouting!<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nAndy<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nI personally answer every message I receive. There\u2019s no \u201cwriting staff\u201d\u2014just me. When writing, please include your name & council. If you\u2019d rather be anonymous\u2014if published\u2014just tell me and I\u2019ll honor that. Although these columns are copyrighted, you have my okay to quote or reproduce any column or part, so long as it\u2019s attributed: \u201cAsk Andy\u201d by Andy McCommish.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[No. 670\u2013 3\/16\/2021 \u2013 Copyright \u00a9 2021 Andy McCommish]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[NO. 670 \u2013 20TH YEAR OF HELPING SCOUTS, SCOUTERS, & PARENTS] To reach the Eagle rank, a Scout will have learned dozens of new skills and completed hundreds of specific requirements through the seven ranks and no less than 21 merit badges. Although the Scout\u2019s Eagle Scout Service Project is just one of these hundreds, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2735"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2735\/revisions\/2739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}