Kentucky by Heart: Versailles teen learns Scouting program is all about service to others

By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist

Recently a Versailles friend told me about her teenage son, Jack Landin, who was working his way toward the prized Boy Scout rank of Eagle Scout, a well-deserved achievement that likely upgrades one’s life success resume considerably.

He would soon complete it, and I was invited to come to his conferring ceremony. I was both intrigued and curious for a couple of reasons. I wondered what the requirements were and also what it was like to go through the process.

Additionally, I knew Jack as a quiet, unassuming sort, not a Type A personality. That didn’t fit my idea of an Eagle Scout candidate. Yet, Jack was nearing the finish line and would become a part of a pretty select group. I wanted to know more.

Troop 14, Versailles. Jack is in center, standing over “Creator” (Photo Provided)

As an aside, though always interested, I was never a Boy Scout, let alone an Eagle Scout. Brought up on a small tobacco farm that required almost year round tending, our family also raised a sizable vegetable garden, making it difficult to do the extra-curriculars. I did manage to convince Dad to play some Little League baseball — five years’ worth — but it involved a time squeeze, often with me leaving the field to go to practices or games, then returning to the same later. Mike, my brother, seemed content to stay home and do farm work on the tractor.

But back to Boy Scouting and Jack.

I approached Jack about interviewing him for a Kentucky by Heart column, and he obliged, though he seemed a little shy about it. We met at the Woodford County Library a few days after the big day, Aug. 13, when he was conferred with his Eagle Scout Rank, called “The Eagle Scout Court of Honor.”

Though my young friend patiently measured his words, I found him to be appreciative and quite open about his experiences in the Boy Scouts in his Woodford County community. I learned that he joined the Cub Scouts while in the first grade. He mentioned the “hands on stuff” and having fun with “race cars rolling down the track.”

Enjoying those experiences right off, it seemed natural to progress to the next level. He became a regular Boy Scout in the fifth grade as a member of Troop 14.

“The leaders motivated me and all had some lasting effect,” he said.

Besides attaining his Eagle Scout status, Jack mentioned a couple of other highly memorable events while participating in the club since being a young child. Both situations, ironically, had to do with uncomfortable weather temperatures.

It started with his first summer camp at Camp Roy C. Manchester, in western Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes. There was no air conditioning available, only “a big fan in the mess hall,” said Jack.

“It was a new experience for all of us, (and) we’d never been to an all week long summer camp,” he said.

Jack Landin, Eagle Scout

Despite the uncomfortable high temperatures, it was educational.

“We were able to use our skills we learned the last few months, and it pushed me to have other skills that other troops had, like making fire, cutting wood, (making) certain knots, basic survival skills, and how to cook. We also learned about poison ivy and ticks!”

Then there was Jack’s freeze time on a winter weekend cookout, called “Klondike Derby,” at a park. “It was so cold,” he said. “I guess I didn’t have enough on. My parents came I don’t know how many miles to give me clothes.”

In the area of social relationships, he said, being in the Boy Scouts “is a great way to make friends because you have common interests,” whereas in school classes, “there’s a wide range of interests.”

I asked Jack how he would define the term “leadership,” as that is such a feature of Boy Scout education.

“I’ll tell you what it’s not, first,” he replied like a wizened old sage. “It’s not for your personal gain…not about yourself. It’s for the entire group. It’s taking initiative to do what you have to do with others to reach a common goal or do the right thing.”

Might leadership be portrayed as “telling people what to do” or something similar? I followed. “It’s more about respect,” he answered. “If you don’t have their respect, you’re not going to be good at leading them.”

Among other items, Eagle Scout requirements include completing a total of 21 merit badges in areas such as camping, family life, communication, and citizenship in the world. Coming down the finish line, however, a significant, challenging, and approved community project must be completed.

“There was a time when there was a little ‘stop arrow’ when I wasn’t quite as involved,” Jack said. “I got lazy about it.”

But apparently, a good kind of peer pressure kicked into the equation when it came to going for Eagle Scout.

“I did want to do it, and I realized that my friends were getting their Eagle Scout…and I thought: ‘They’re doing it. I can, too. I buckled down.’”

And when it was time for the project to begin, he liked the idea of relating it to horses, and he got in contact with President Michael Blowen at Old Friends, in Georgetown, a place known as a “home for retired thoroughbreds.”

Blowen, a former film critic for The Boston Globe, founded the compassionate organization sitting on 136 acres which now has approximately 175 horses living out their twilight years and being treated with great kindness.