Houma Eagle Scout heads to Iceland with Boy Scouts

On a scale of excitement from one to 10, Dylan Barrios said he was at about a 12 regarding his upcoming trip overseas.

That’s because the Eagle Scout from Houma was among two who were selected from thousands of scouts and ventures to represent Boy Scouts of America in Reykjavik, Iceland at the 2014 Iceland International Scout Jamboree.

“I’m very ready to experience another country, meet new people and have a lot of fun,” Barrios said. “It’s a big honor to think that Boy Scouts of America would be willing to put a lot of trust in me.”

Barrios received his selection after being recommended by the International Service Team of the Southeast Louisiana Council and then being selected by Boy Scouts of America. He felt like attending the last two National Scout Jamborees helped him get selected for the international jamboree.

But as the recent Terrebonne High School graduate put it, he isn’t “going just to have a happy good ole time.”

“I’m going as a representative on behalf of Boy Scouts of America representing an entire country and an entire organization of scouts, so it’s kind of an honorable thing. It’s like my entire scouting experience coming together after many years of doing stuff,” Barrios said.

The Eagle Scout has been affiliated with the boy scouts since he was five years old. Those 13 years of experience will come in handy when he and the other campers will be spending roughly a week living in tents in northern Iceland.

“Pretty much all the camping you do in scouting is tent camping. You rarely spend time in cabins or doing too much else because that’s sort of against the saying with scouting that 90 percent of scouting is outing. The whole thing is you’re supposed to spend your time outdoors, embracing nature and all of its beauty and all it has to offer,” Barrios said.

And as any true scout would, Barrios has researched the elements he will encounter in Iceland. He says he expects some rain and temperatures should range from 50 to 80 degrees.

“From what I’ve seen from the tourism website for Iceland, it’s a very beautiful landscape. They have a few active volcanoes but nothing major that would put us in any severe danger. They have a mountainous landscape so that’ll be fun to traverse, getting out from the flat plains of Louisiana. It’s a very stable climate compared to what we have here,”the Eagle Scout said.

Barrios departed Thursday and spent the Friday and Saturday touring Iceland with the rest of the Boy Scouts of America contingent before reporting to the jamboree consisting of plenty of outdoor and social activities Monday.

“I’m expecting to learn brand new things with the activities that I’m doing and also meeting a whole bunch of new people, because there are going to be plenty of people from other countries. It’ll be nice to meet new people and study relationships with people from around the world,” Barrios said.

And as Barrios gets set for another new adventure this fall when he enrolls at the University Southern Mississippi, he feels this multi-cultural experience in Iceland could help get him ready for the multi-culture experiences all college campuses present.

“This will certainly help open my eyes to the cultural differences seeing how people react to certain things and just being more sensitive to how people are and also just traveling in general. It’ll open your eyes to the world and experience new things. I really wanted to travel outside the country again so I feel this will be a good thing to do to wrap up my youth life as it before I start building my adult life with college,” he said.

Barrios plans on joining the Pride of Mississippi Marching Band and majoring in music education. But don’t think his scouting experiences will stop there. He says the Catholic church on Southern Miss’ campus hosts a boy scout troop and a cub scout pack, and he plans on getting involved with those groups after settling in to college life and beyond.

“It definitely won’t end here. I intend to still be involved with boy scouts until probably the day that I die or I’m hospitalized and told I can’t go outside anymore,” Barrios said.

His scouting experience comes from his troop and adventure crew experience sponsored by Houma’s First United Methodist Church. Contact the church at (985) 868-7787