When Troop 31 members Trent Crook, Robbie Nordahl and Tyler Souza are recognized on Sunday at 1:00 pm the Rochester Grange for making Eagle Scout, they hope people understand how scouting has expanded their lives.
“It just teaches you, you’ve got to be a good person,” said Souza, 19. “Every day it’s like, ‘What did you do to help someone out?’ How can we help the community? Then we get the survival skills to learn how to be independent.”
The trio’s beginnings were nearly as close as their present state as great friends and partners in scouting.
“We all started out around the same time, we’ve all been friends since we were kids,” said Crook, 18, who like Souza is a 2022 Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School graduate. “Probably around the time we started getting close to Eagle or were thinking about getting Eagle is probably when we decided essentially that we were going to have it all at the same time.”
Nordahl, 18, a Middleborough native whose family connections and general attraction to Troop 31 clinched the decision to join the Rochester group, recalls that any time one of the three earned a rank higher than the other two, within two or three weeks all three would be at the same achievement level.
It’s always been that way, but the three have been careful not to let their friendship become an exclusive club.
Crook’s Eagle Scout project was to improve signage to Troop 31’s camp owned by the YMCA, a woodsy area needing some navigational assistance. He also did a couple of signs pointing to far-away campsites including one in England where scouting as Americans know it first took place.
Souza’s project involved the surface and color restoration of gravestones at a local cemetery. He considers the success rate “moderate” because the multistep process required more hands than were available.
“We did the whole thing, but we weren’t able to get really in depth with it because we didn’t have enough people,” he said.
Nordahl repaired the storage shed and cleaned the maintenance building at the Dexter Lane ball fields. His crew also repainted one of the sheds on the site and changed out parts to help it better withstand the weather.
Citing the fact his and Crook’s fathers both served on the Rochester Police Department, Nordahl’s original idea was to perform maintenance on the department’s radar trailer. But the funding mechanisms and timing proved a valuable lesson in the ways or municipal government and the tackling of projects.
“When I was doing my Eagle Scout project and seeing all these different people in the government and also seeing how they operate in the government, it encouraged me to study law,” said Nordahl, who is majoring in Political Science on the Law track at the University of Maine. “It was one of the deciding factors for me.”
Crook, who is studying aerospace engineering at Clarkson University, dreams of working someday for NASA or SpaceX (the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.) He was at age 12 or 13 when he made space exploration his second badge at camp.
“It’s a dream job but not too far outside the realm of stuff I’ve done already,” he said. Crook studied electrical engineering at Old Colony. “Scouts certainly helped with that.”
Except for troop or pack leaders, Boy Scouts of America activities end at age 21, but affiliated organizations continue scouting such as Adventure Scouts and Sea Scouts.
Souza noted that Eagle scouts enter the military at a higher rank. The UMass Dartmouth student is taking his lessons with him but is in no hurry to determine a long-range plan.
The three members of Boy Scouts of America were practically born into Troop 31, which they say has an Eagle Scout accomplishment rate of approximately 50% among those in position to take the decisive step. The national rate, they said, hovers closer to 7%.
Nordahl said the three were advised to get their Eagle Scout requirements out of the way early in life so as not to conflict with the popular parts of being a teenager such as sports and social life.
The trio remains indebted to two scout leaders in particular, Michael Blanchard, the old-school leader from whom they learned many things, and more recently Kevin Thompson, who ushered in a mentoring approach, often grouping older or more-accomplished scouts with younger ones.
“It didn’t just teach us how to live in the woods,” said Nordahl, “it taught us how to live in the world.”
Troop 31 has announced its golf-outing fundraiser on Tuesday August 22, at the Back Nine club in Lakeville. Sponsorships start at $100. A round of golf and dinner is $125 per person or $40 for dinner alone. There will be contests, giveaways and shenanigans. For more information, visit RochesterTroop31Golf.com.
By Mick Colageo