New Fletcher facility represents fulfilled goal
July 25, 2012Crime Blotter: Reported offenses in the Tri-parishes
July 25, 2012
Joshua Blanchard of Thibodaux has joined the top rank of Boy Scouts of America by earning the organization’s Eagle Scout Award, and he is not the first in his family to receive the honor.
“Both of my brothers, Roy and Brian Blanchard were in the Boy Scouts and the camps they got to go to seemed so interesting,” said Blanchard. “My brother Roy was also an Eagle Scout.”
Only 5 percent of Boy Scouts become Eagle Scouts, and Blanchard is one of less than 10 of his fellow troop members each year to receive the award.
Blanchard, a sophomore at Thibodaux High School, was a Cub Scout for four years and has been a scout in Troop 458 of the Knights of Columbus Council 1114 for the last four years. His Eagle Scout rank comes on the heels of the completion of his Boy Scouts’ service project, building mailboxes and shelves for the Bayou Community Academy School.
“I talked to a few people who had suggestions. I wanted to help this new school that had just opened,” the 15-year-old said. “They started out with just a building. I spoke to the principal and she suggested the mailboxes and shelves.”
Blanchard, the son of Alice and Dean Blanchard, began planning the project in October of last year and started building the mailboxes and shelves in April. With the help of other troop members, Blanchard completed and delivered the items to the school at the end of May.
“The teachers loved it,” said Troop 458 assistant scoutmaster Brandon Queen. “They needed a spot to sort their mail into so they wouldn’t have to dig through a big pile. The book shelves will be used to store new books the school just got.”
The project is one of many duties, including fulfilling leadership roles within the troop and earning merit badges, Blanchard completed on his road to earning Eagle Scout rank.
“Troops must pick the project, do the paperwork, set up for the project and execute the project,” Queen said. “The project is then put before a board of review, usually three scout leaders and community figures like teachers, judges or mayors.”
Queen has seen Blanchard grow from his Cub Scout days and watched as the young man moved up through the leadership positions within the troop.
“Joshua has displayed his leadership skills while serving as a senior patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader and an Order of the Arrow representative,” Queen said. “He has grown over the years and listens and takes directions well. He is very respectable and fun to be around.”
As former assistant patrol leader and a current senior patrol leader, positions that are filled by scouts chosen by members of the troop, Blanchard helps to organize meetings and events, makes phone calls and works on troop newsletters.
In addition to his leadership roles and service projects, Blanchard has earned more than 31 merit badges, awards that also helped him earn the performance-based achievement of Eagle Scout.
“There are some hard ones to earn, but that is part of Boy Scouts, to achieve new personal heights,” Blanchard said. “My sailboating and fishing badges were the easiest to earn.”
Blanchard not only followed in his brother Roy’s footsteps by becoming an Eagle Scout, but time spent fishing with his older brother helped him to secure his fishing badge.
“My brother Roy and I like to fish and I already knew how to fish and bait my line,” Blanchard said. “You have to catch four fish and know what knots to tie your hooks with to earn your badge.”
According to Blanchard, the Boy Scouts of America camps also provided opportunities to rack up badges.
“I got my sailing badge while at Camp V-bar in Mississippi,” Blanchard said. “A week of learning about sailing went by quickly. We had to flip the boat on purpose and flip it back over on the water. It was fun, but trying to climb back in the boat was pretty hard.”
Blanchard has also earned rifle shooting, photography, cooking, camping, wilderness survival, physical fitness, citizenship of the world and family life badges.
“Family life was one of the hardest ones for me to earn,” Blanchard said. “To earn the family life badge, you meet with your family regularly and discuss what is going on in your lives. It helps keep the family unit close together, but it’s just my mom and me. She works, my brother Roy is a firefighter and it’s hard to find time to all get together.”
Life for Blanchard is full with school, playing high school football, Boy Scout duties and even mowing grass, but Blanchard said that being a Boy Scout has helped him learn to keep an even keel.
“Staying balanced and having a schedule helps, and things just fall into place,” Blanchard said. “I try to have everything done by the weekend so I can go to camps on Saturdays and Sundays.”
“Being in the Scouts has taught Joshua a very strong sense of discipline,” Queen added. “He balances school, football, homework and troop meetings.”
Blanchard said he plans to stay involved with the organization after high school and help educate future generations of Boy Scouts.
“The most important thing I have learned as a Boy Scout is that everyone is different and they may have a great expertise at one thing and not be good at another,” Blanchard said. “Know what you are capable of and challenge yourself to be better.”
Alice Blanchard attaches an Eagle Scout pin to her son Joshua’s Boy Scout uniform. Blanchard, of Troop 458 of the Knights of Columbus Council 1114 of Thibodaux, is the second member of his family to earn the designation, the Boy Scout’s highest award.
