I had the high privilege Feb. 27 to speak to an outstanding group of Scouts and Scouters gathered at the historic Bruce Forestry Museum housed in the former company store of the old E.L. Bruce Company on the town square here as part of Scouting’s Natchez Trace Council annual awards dinner.
In Bruce, my thoughts turned to my late friend and mentor, Gale Denley, who was also a Scout during his boyhood. Years ago, he developed Bruce’s city slogan: “Where Money Grows on Trees.”
During the evening, 52 young people were recognized for earning the rank of Eagle Scout – something I was fortunate to accomplish in 1972 at Troop 53 at the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
In a culture that moves faster every year, it’s easy to overlook the old milestones that once shaped American youth. Today’s teenagers navigate a noisy, digital landscape where social media often overwhelms service, and short‑term distraction competes with long‑term discipline. Yet there remains a group of young people who quietly commit themselves to something deeper: the path to the Eagle Scout rank. Even now, especially now—Eagle Scouts are special.
For generations, the Eagle rank has been the summit of Scouting achievement, a distinction earned by fewer than 6% of all Scouts. Nationwide, there were only 29,000 new Eagles last year, a remarkable total for an organization that served just over one million youth.
But if you want to understand why Eagles matter, you must look beyond the numbers—and then look right back at them.
Becoming an Eagle Scout has never been easy. It requires years of structured advancement, practical skills, community service, leadership within one’s troop, and the planning and completion of a significant service project. These projects alone have left their fingerprints across Mississippi—from restored cemeteries to veteran memorials to improved school and church grounds.
The diversity of Scouting’s Eagles tells another story. According to demographic analyses, 66.5% of Eagle Scouts are White, followed by 13.3% Hispanic, 8.9% Black or African, and smaller percentages of Asian and multiracial youth. In recent years, almost 3% of new Eagle Scouts are female.
And consider that the average Eagle Scout is a teenager who will go on to college, with 79% earning at least a bachelor’s degree later in life. That’s not a coincidence. It’s a pattern. The skills required to complete the rank—time management, service leadership, self-discipline — translate directly into academic and professional success.
Closer to home in Mississippi, these patterns reinforce something many of us have seen for decades: that Scouts who achieve Eagle are disproportionately the young people who later become community leaders, business owners, military officers, teachers, and public‑minded professionals. They aren’t perfect. They aren’t superheroes. They’re teenagers who simply refused to quit.
And that distinguishes them in a world that increasingly rewards instant gratification over sustained effort.
Scouting America’s own reporting notes that in 2024, Scouts nationwide performed 7.1 million hours of service and earned more than 1.3 million merit badges, a testament to the program's scale and the service ethic at its core. In Mississippi, that impact is magnified in small towns and counties where civic infrastructure relies heavily on volunteers.
Critics sometimes claim that the Eagle rank is an artifact of another era, a tradition out of step with modern youth culture. But the data argues the opposite. A million young Americans still choose Scouting each year. Tens of thousands still push themselves toward a rank that requires grit and follow-through.
The truth is this: Eagle Scouts remain special not because the world has changed, but because the requirements—and the values behind them—haven’t. In a time when leadership is too often confused with loudness, the Eagle rank still rewards responsibility, humility, service, and competence. And those qualities, in 2026, may be more scarce—and more precious—than ever.
So, when a young person earns the Eagle Scout badge here in Mississippi, don’t treat it as a relic of yesterday. Treat it as a promise for tomorrow: a sign that our communities are still raising young people willing to lead, serve, build, repair, and commit to something greater than themselves. And that’s something worth celebrating.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
17 comments:
When looking at resumes if I see Eagle it automatically gets a pass to possible interview. May or may not happen but that one achievement is worthy of consideration.
girls can be eagle scouts now. let that sink in. stabdards have been lowered enough so that even a girl can become an eagle scout. You cant even be a Boy Scout anymore. its just Scouts and Girl Scouts.
Sid, the Boy Scouts were great. Scouts are woke now and those who were responsible for its demise are well known, check out the court settlements and payments made by those caught. Why no mention of the Secretary of Defenses recent announcement concerning scouting? I guess we all know the truth.
Standards haven't been lowered one iota, you dipshit. You're just threatened by girls meeting them because you couldn't.
Went woke went broke. Mortgaged Philmont
@9:32
Nobody is threatened by girls. Unless you mean scared of being threatened with a rape accusation just for looking at them while they dress like sluts.
Wonderfully said, Sid. Couldn't agree more. I'm lucky enough to be an Eagle, and now, also an adult volunteer with my kids' troop. Scouting is a great way to build character and leadership skills (and doesn't hurt on a resume). You nailed it.
I am not sure if you noticed but Sid is woke too. Just like Bill Crawford. Two who think things are better for everyone in Mississippi 2026 than they were in 1966. Which is wrong.
@ 8:08 I did the same thing. Eagle here. But it's a real shame what the BSA has devolved into.
"scouts", non gender specific scouts, what a fucking joke. We are going to regret the emasculation of this country one day. And I don't blame women, liberals, democrats or feminists, I blame men, supposed conservative men that have willingly gone along with this nonsensical bullshit. We should have broken this idiocy up at the door back in the 1970's. The most reviled and openly persecuted group in America are straight white Christian conservative men. The very group who ironically created the society and freedom for all these "oppressed" groups to bitch, piss and whine.
I don't know what this post has to do with abortion but knock off the hijacking.
Let's not forget that DEI is prominent is required badges. Take a peek a scout participation numbers, they are plummeting.
My son is an Eagle Scout. I'm proud of his achievement. However, if he were starting now I would have put him into Trail Life instead.
For the Scouts to invite Sid to speak is an evidence that even in Mississippi the program is woke.
I had an idea an excellent idea experienced with Boy Scouts. I had fun with the life skills it taught me and enjoyed the camping, hiking, rappelling and other adventures.
I achieved Eagle Scout.
Unfortunately what is now “Scouting USA”’is a DEI/Woke Joke. Why have Girl Scouts, if everyone can join Scouting America?
I fondly remember my time as a Boy Scout, but never even suggested our push son join the pathetic program that it later became.
Well, I had several comments to make on this thread, mostly speaking to the value of the Scouting program, both 'back during the day' when I was a Scout, and later a leader - or later while I watched my son and his son go through the program. And yes, the value of those that earned their Eagle during that time, which just as the first commentor above noted, has always been and still is today recognized in most every college application and in job interviews.
But, the idiot at 3:51 made such a stupid comment I decided to focus there - and say to him that he doesn't have a clue as to what he is saying. Salter has been an advocate, a supporter, and a benefactor for this program for most of his adult life following his work as a young man earning his Eagle. The fact that the Council that covers damn near most of all of North Mississippi had him as their 'volunteer' leader for the past couple of years and named this year's class of Eagle Scouts in his honor speaks not to anything "woke", but acknowledges his commitment to a program that works with youth today while the world spins around worring about "wokeness" rather than helping teenagers grow up.
I've spent most of my life, beginning as a Cub and ever since, supporting the Scouting program. And yes, I'm not totally happy with how it has changed and where --- in some cases but not everywhere - it has gone. But its still a great program that does much for young men throughout the country, something that's needed today now more than ever.
I’m was in Boy Scouts in the early 90s. Someone gifted me a Boy Scouts year book/Almanac from the late 60s. It was as thick as the phone book back then. Jam-packed with pictures of boy scouts shooting, trapping, flying Pipers, boating, and enjoying jamborees with thousands of boy scouts and an enormous tent city. I knew then that Boy Scouts in 1991 was not even close to the greatness of what was in that book. We didn’t hunt or trap. We had meetings and made knots and crafts and pine derby racers. We camped once a year at Roosevelt State Park and went to Okatoma to canoe. I was so bored by the time I was 13 I quit going and started martial arts instead.
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