BSA Eagle rank rush brings record number of applications

Bryce and Bentley Garlic hand in their Eagle Scout Rank applications to Beth Blake Monday evening.

LOGAN – There was a rush for Eagle Scout applications at the Logan Trapper Trails office Monday. At closing time, Beth Blake had a big stack of applications to go through for scouting’s highest rank.

Trapper Trails Scout Executive Allan Endicott said there was a rush for Eagle Scout awards this month.

For Boy Scouts associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is the end of an era. For over a century scouting was the training program for boys and young men of the church. For many a scouter, there has been a goal to earn the highest rank given, the Eagle Scout Award.

The Trapper Trails office of the Boy Scouts of America reported a record number of Eagle Scout ranks awarded for the month of December. Trapper Trails Scout Executive Allan Endicott said there was a rush of awards given this year.

“December has been a record month in the Trapper Trails Council,” he said. “As of December 27th, 833 youth have received the Eagle Scout Award.”

It has been a record year for Eagle awards as well, the council awarded 2,309 Eagle Scout ranks for 2019.

He expects more submissions before Tuesday, Dec. 31.

“This is a record all the way around, both for the month and the year,” Endicott said. “Over a third, or 36 percent, of the Eagle ranks for the year have come in the month of December, and we are still expecting more.”

He said it has been a lot of fun to watch that happening.

The Trapper Trails Council serves five districts throughout Northern Utah, Southeastern Idaho, and Southwestern Wyoming.

“We did a lot of them (Eagle Rank awards) this month and I don’t look at where they are coming from, or if they are LDS troops or not,” Endicott said. “I will tell you this, there are a lot of the projects and there is an awful lot of good happening throughout the council because of the service of those scouts.”

He said the interest generated by the church leaving has had a positive effect on the scouting organization. They have a growing number of new troops being organized because of the publicity.

Francee Reyes holds the coveted Eagle Scout awards that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are rushing to get before Dec. 31, deadline. The church is pulling out of scouting effective Jan. 1, 2020.

“We have started over 60 troops this year,” he said. “We won’t know the exact number until after Dec. 31. That is tremendous number of traditional units organized in a year.”

The number of new traditional troops has a lot to do with a desire by many boys to still be part a troop. Then there are a lot of legacy families who want their children to be involved because their father or grandfather enjoyed scouting, he said.

“A lot of people who wanted to be a scout thought they had to be a member the church,” Endicott said. “And then there are people hearing about scouting for the first time.”

“It’s fun time to be in scouting,” he said.

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