Together Since Cub Scouts, Recently Inducted As Eagle Scouts, Members Of Troop 494 Do One More Good Deed (With Video)

After becoming Cub Scouts together in second grade, six young men from Madison recently achieved the highest advancement rank in Boy Scouting when they earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the only time in recent history that six scouts at one time achieved that honor.

Those young men are Eagle Scout Andrew Chapman, Eagle Scout Mark DeCillis, Eagle Scout Christopher Shanley, Eagle Scout Jack Thomas, Eagle Scout Paul Thomas and Eagle Scout Alexander Weissman.

The achieved that rank after many years of hard work culminating in service projects that they described to the Board of Selectmen during a recent meeting at town hall. The scouts also led the board and the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance, after which time First Selectman Fillmore McPherson encouraged the young men to consider returning to the town after they go to college to help run the town. 

Scout leader Tom Shanley praised for his work as well

Also present during the selectmen's meeting was Scout Leader Tom Shanley, who was praised for his work leading the boys and keeping them engaged and involved through their senior year of high school. When asked how he did that, when most scout troops disband during or before middle school, Shanley said he drew upon experiences he found interesting when he was a young man and he said he was careful to present them with challenges they would find difficult, without making them too difficult.

The key, Shanley said, was finding the right balance for each age and taking lots of different kinds of trips.

"As they got older, the skill level required for each trip kept going up. Whatever challenge we presented them, we knew they could do it, but that it would be difficult," he said.

From nearby hikes to trips across the country

When the scouts were younger, it was enough to have them build bird houses and bat houses, and take hikes nearby. Then they graduated to taking hikes in winter and summer. Eventually, he told the scouts they were going to climb every high mountain peak in New England. "That challenged them and there was a reward when they climbed up those high peaks. They were exhausted, but the view from the top was extraordinary."

The scouts also went to New Mexico, Maine, and Vermont. In addition to hiking and mountain climbing, they did river trips and rafting.

Then, to mix it up a little, Shanley would organize trips to destinations like the Coast Guard Academy and the morgue in New Haven. "We had a contact there, so we showed them what happens during an autopsy and what medical students do for learning purposes," Shanley said.

Exposure to different jobs and skills

Shanley said that his job as a contractor puts him in contact with many different kinds of people in many different professions and that he used those contacts to help introduce the scouts to a wide variety of jobs and skills. "Aeronautics, railroading, shop building, we wanted them to know there was a lot more out there than you see," Shanley said. "We had a Junior Olympic sharpshooter shoot a quarter at a hundred yards and people from industry talking about what they market and sell."

Shanley said another key to the young men's success was creating the right kind of Eagle Scout project. "Again, it has to be challenging, but you can't set them up for failure," he said. "The project has to be a minimum of 100 hours, they have to go for funding, they have to get it approved, they have to write to different organizations to get them involved. Then they have to do the project itself."

Shanley credits his own parents with inspiring him

Shanley said he is proud of the work the scouts have done around town, but he added that many people helped. "There were a lot of people involved and not just me, they all deserve the credit, " he said. And, Shanley said, his parents deserve credit as well.

"When I was growing up, my mother and father were a big influence. We always used to take trips across the country when I was growing up. My father was able to accumulate six weeks of vacation doing tool and die work in New Haven. My brother and I got quite an exposure to the United States."

And that's what he wanted to give his Eagle Scouts, a group that includes one of his sons. "I want to show them as much as we can," he said, adding that his wife participated in some of the trips as well. "After I'm gone, they're always going to remember the stuff we did."