Floating Eagle Ian Mckelvey - Who Is Happiest In The Outdoors - Earns Top Scout Award By Improving Trails At Mowry State Park

Ian McKelvey keeps his grade-point average above 3.5. He holds a part-time job at Target. He sprints for Timberlake High School’s track team.

But there’s nothing he’d rather be doing than whitewater rafting, hiking or biking.

So when it came time for McKelvey, a member of Boy Scout Troop 215, to pick an Eagle Scout project, he chose to improve trails at the accessible-only-by-boat Mowry State Park on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

McKelvey spent a total of about 100 hours working on his trail-improvement project. He contacted the Park Service, arranged boat transportation, recruited his family and friends to help him, and he stayed out at the site for an entire rainy weekend.

Before-and-after photographs show how he surveyed and cut a path, poured a concrete bulkhead for a dock, secured another dock to an existing bulkhead, set up bathroom signs and painted picnic benches.

“It was neat to see it when it was done,” he said. “It was kinda cool to see how it changed.”

Only 1 percent of all Boy Scouts ever achieve the Eagle Scout designation. Eagle Scout projects can only be started after a series of previous badges are earned. Over years, Boy Scouts earn badges based on knowledge and by living up to the organization’s slogan: Do a good turn every day.

“You have to show you practice that,” McKelvey said.

A scout must wait months between badges, which requires time and tenacity. They also must hold leadership positions within their troop.

“Boy Scouts teaches you outdoors skills, hobbies, first aid and citizenship,” McKelvey said.

It was the outdoor skills that first attracted McKelvey to the club as an 8-year-old, but now as a high school junior, he finds the other knowledge helpful as well.

“I have some knowledge about the Constitution, and I know that I want to stay involved in the community after I graduate,” he said. “But I don’t have any aspirations of holding a public office.”

Through scouts, McKelvey completed a five-day, 250-mile bike trek through eastern British Columbia, a 65-mile backpacking trip through the Selway crags, and a whitewater rafting trip down the lower Salmon River.

Now, with his ranks complete and 27 merit badges to his name, McKelvey still manages to help guide the younger scouts by attending meetings as a monitor.

“I like helping out the younger guys,” he said.

After graduation, McKelvey plans to attend North Idaho College for two years and then go on to the University of Idaho where he hopes to study criminology and psychology.

McKelvey would like to spend his life whitewater rafting, but since he knows he has to get a real job, he hopes to prevent crime.

“I’d like to be a profiler,” he said. “I was really interested in Robert Yates. I have read a lot about serial killers, and I had created a profile for the Spokane serial killer. I was pretty close with Yates.”

McKelvey also hopes his Eagle Scout honor will help him secure a job.

“Even though employers may not know exactly what Eagle Scout is, most people know it’s a big thing. Hopefully, that will show them I’m dedicated, and I’ll be dedicated to whatever I do.”