By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The principles of scouting are not in everyone’s wheelhouse in this day and age, but it is still alive, and operating quietly, in many communities all over the country.
It is unusual, however, to see three generations of Boy Scouts in one family.
June 25 marked the second anniversary of the three generations of Whalens traveling by train out to New Mexico to Philmont Ranch where they packed up their gear and set out for Mt. Baldy, a 12,441 foot high mountain.
It was an unforgettable experience.
The Whalen family of Florence believe in scouting. Wally got into scouting when he was 11 back in the early 1960’s.
“My older brother Bill Whalen was ten years older than me and was the assistant scout master for troop 845 at St Paul in Florence,” he remembered. “He thought I should join, and so I did.”
Wally stayed in for three years, but due to a persistent case of athlete’s foot, he couldn’t take part in a lot of the outings and campings of the troop, and by the time he was cleared he had lost interest.
Fast forward, Wally grows up, gets married, and he has a son, Jared.
“Jared came home from first grade one day, waving a paper about scouting, and told his mother and me he wanted to be a Tiger scout,” Wally said. “With the encouragement of his mom, we both joined, Jared as a Tiger, and me as a den leader.”
They were in pack 138 our of the Florence Christian Church, and that’s where they stayed through Tiger scout, cub scout, and Webelo until 1993 when Jared crossed over to be a Boy Scout. Then they joined Troop 1.
With assistance from his father, Jared stayed in scouts and worked through the leadership steps to become an Eagle Scout, the highest rank a scout can achieve. Along with this rank, each scout plans and executes a project that will benefit some organization, such as a church, a school, a park — something for the community. It is also the scout’s job to ally with other people to help him accomplish the work, and keep everyone on task until it is done.
“Jared put up signs identifying twelve or thirteen different varieties of trees in Nature Park,” said Wally. “Then he made the signs identifying them and protected them with glass.”
Another fast forward, and in the blink of an eye, Jared is grown up, and he has a son, Bradlee. Bradlee joins scouts as a Tiger in first grade and Jared becomes a den leader. Wally is still an assistant Scoutmaster for Troop One.
Bradlee took to scouting as easily as his dad and grandpa did, and he has now risen to the rank of Eagle Scout. He will be 17 in August. For his project, Bradlee organized tree planting in South Fork Park and helped to build retaining walls.
Two years ago in 2021, Troop One decided they should go to Philmont ranch for their camping trip that year. Wally, Jared and Bradlee decided they should go on the trip together, making it a trip to always remember.
“It was a 12-day trek,” said Wally. “We all took the train to Chicago, then to New Mexico. They allowed two days of travel to the ranch, and two days back. The rest was the hiking on the trail.”
He explained that they carried all their gear, prepackaged food, and tents. A bus took the troop to the beginning of the trail. There were staff camps every so often where the hikers could replenish their food. Wally said there were streams and lakes where they could refill their water bottles, because they carry purification tablets to make the water safe to drink. There are wild animals in that area of New Mexico, but all they saw was deer and a few prarie dogs. The mountain itself was tough on the scouts, but they had a goal to accomplish, and they all kept going.
“I slipped a couple of times going up the mountain,” Wally remembered his ascent up Mt Baldy. “I looked back, and Jared was behind me, making sure I was okay. We were crying when we got to the top, because we were so happy to have gotten to the top!”
Since it was founded in 1910, over 130 million men and women have taken part in the Boy Scouts of America’s youth programs, because they are good programs, and people come out of the programs with morals, and lead conscientious lives trying to help others.
However, according to Scoutleader Tim Iott, fewer than 6 percent of scouts in the US make it to the rank of Eagle.
The scout mission is “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout oath and the Scout law.”
At the ceremony where Bradlee became an Eagle scout, he reminisced about his years in scouting.
“It has been a long and arduous journey from the first grade,” he said.
He recalled many times that he and his dad, or he and his grandpa would do a project together, such as making a go cart that rolls downhill. He loved that he had the chance to hike to Mt Baldy with them.
“Scouting has been very important in my life for almost 12 years,” he said. “I am grateful for everyone in my life that I’ve met along the way. It is sad to be moving on. I believe it has made me a better person overall.”