Happy Campers Help Scout’S Eagle Quest

Ian Kincaid needed 10 fellow Boy Scouts to give up their spring breaks to help him clear brush as part of his Eagle Scout service project.

Bribery was in order.

Attaining scouting’s highest honor meant Kincaid had to promise his crew three days of camping, plus hamburgers and tacos.

“We don’t get a lot of turnout for Eagle projects unless there’s a campout,” said fellow Eagle candidate Jon Downing, 15.

To hear the Scouts of Troop 201 tell it, they’re camping junkies. They hold campouts once a month, except for February. Kincaid got a dozen Scouts to help him clear brush from an old railroad grade trail at Farragut State Park this week.

Kincaid also had helped Eagle Scouts Lindsay Ostrom, 15, Tom Chatters, 15, and Josh Holte, 18, who are returning the favor this week. “We’re used to this kind of work,” Downing said.

Finding a suitable project can be a challenge. In addition, the Eagle candidate must plan everything from where to borrow a good pruning saw to what and when to feed the crew.

”(My plan) didn’t get approved the first time,” Kincaid said. The adult committee that oversees Eagle projects said he hadn’t figured the costs or number of people required.

Kincaid’s crew becomes Pavlov’s dogs when he mentions that his dad, Scoutmaster Terry Kincaid, will be making hamburgers Tuesday night. “He’s a chef,” Ostrom said, reverently.

None of the Scouts Tuesday claimed to be a good cook. One Scout recounted a campout where a plan for beef stew was scrapped because one Scout forgot to bring beef.

Chatters, who installed picnic tables and fire rings at Farragut for his Eagle project, ticked off some of the subjects an Eagle Scout must master: swimming, environmental science, knot tying, first aid, compass and map reading, emergency preparedness, camping and citizenship.

All Scouts agreed the rank of Eagle is special. “I wanted to be one since I was little,” said Holte, a former Scout who pitched in Tuesday. He puts the rank on his resume.

“It’s a milestone for a boy,” said Terry Kincaid, who believes attaining Eagle requires tenacity. “The ones who are good students and can learn to juggle 83 different things and still stay on top of it all become the Eagle Scouts.”

Troop 201 in Coeur d’Alene has 27 registered Scouts, but only about 14 who attend regularly. The troop usually has three or four Eagle Scouts on the roster.

Kids at school tell Chatters, who earned his Eagle rank at 14, that Scouting is a waste of time. On Scouting Day, when the boys are supposed to wear their uniforms to school, most are teased.

Chatters said he doesn’t care. “Not many people get to be an Eagle Scout,” he said. “It’s something I wanted to do.”

TACTICAL MATTERS Finding a suitable project can be a challenge. In addition, the Eagle candidate must plan everything from where to borrow a good pruning saw to what and when to feed the crew. Kincaid lured helpers with a promise of hamburgers and tacos.