Comments (23)

1. l.keeler of the band the dolby f**ckers

   posted by antonio on 7-31-2008 at 2:54 pm

2. The girl scouts have a similar program that always seems to be forgotten and deemed not as important as the eagle scout award. It’s called the Gold Award and is just as time consuming and honorable to earn. I’ve linked the wikipedia page about it to my name.

   As a lifelong girl scout (i’m 27 and a leader now) i always get disappointed when i see so much about the boy scouts but nothing about girlscouts.

   posted by Gayle on 7-31-2008 at 3:10 pm

3. David Lynch as well.

   Yes, the director of Eraserhead.

   posted by EMStoveken on 7-31-2008 at 3:26 pm

4. What about me? I got Eagle Scout and I am AWESOME!

   posted by Witty Nickname on 7-31-2008 at 3:47 pm

5. Is there anything that Mike Rowe CAN’T do!?

   posted by Point Special on 7-31-2008 at 4:16 pm

6. Gayle .. Personally I had never heard anything about this, so you’re right. The Eagle Scout honor is so high up, and I didn’t even think the Girl Scouts had anything similar.

   posted by Reggie on 7-31-2008 at 7:40 pm

7. Every astronaut that has set foot on the moon obtained Eagle.

   posted by Cory on 7-31-2008 at 9:31 pm

8. Gayle, you read my mind! I’m a Gold Award (my boyfriend is an Eagle Scout) scout, and I was hoping to see a complementary list to this one featuring 10 Gold Award gals.

   I think one of my missions in life is to inform every boy scout about the Gold Award, because my own boyfriend had never heard of it until I just about knocked him senseless with information.

   posted by catherine annn on 7-31-2008 at 9:41 pm

9. Look Gayle you want to talk to me about Girl Scouts? What do you have to do to get the “gold award”? Top seller of cookies that year? Do us all a favor and do not compare your sissy organization to a much more difficult and honorable achievement like Eagle Scout.

   posted by Michael Palermo on 7-31-2008 at 10:07 pm

10. Well, the fact that the Girl Scouts keep changing the name of their top award might nave a little something to do with the lack of name recognition. It was the Golden Eaglet, Mariner (I think),First Class Scout (bad choice – crib from the Boy Scouts)and now Gold Award. There may be a name or 2 I’ve forgotten.
    It is actually a harder award to receive thean Eagle. One cannot even start to qualify for it until one is in 9th grade and “double-dipping” is not allowed (One activity cannot count towards more than one portion of the qualifications). Many young men have finished their Eagle before a young woman can even start to work toward the Gold Award.
    Y’all hit a sore spot w/ me. I had the privilege to lead a Girl Scout troop for 14 years. Out of about 20 girls, only about 4 earned Gold.

    posted by Larriann on 7-31-2008 at 11:13 pm

11. Michael Palermo – Why don’t you read about what it does take to earn the Gold Award instead of spouting off uninformed opinions about the Girl Scouts? Yes, Eagle is a very great achievement, but don’t put down something you obviously haven’t taken the time to research.

    It’s also interesting that you make the leap to cookie sales in your tirade. I’ve spent plenty of dough on Boy Scout popcorn over the years. If I were as uninformed as you are, I could make the same statement about popcorn as you made about cookies, but I won’t.

    posted by bzzyb on 8-1-2008 at 8:18 am

12. Michael Polermo – How about you take a dose of reality. I was in boy scouts for a few years. It was tying knots and fake camping. The girl scouts is far more practical than that. And their cookies are delicious.

    So frankly I wouldn’t think so highly of myself, and would take a good hard look at the bigoted organization I support. (That’s right, although they are government funded, the Boy Scouts don’t allow gays or atheists.)

    posted by Zach on 8-1-2008 at 8:52 am

13. I never knew there was such animosity brewing in the Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts world.

    posted by Lynn on 8-1-2008 at 9:05 am

14. Considering the Boy Scouts actively discriminate against non-theists and homosexuals, I wouldn’t consider the Eagle Scout badge to be one of honor.

    It should also be noted Steven Speilberg resigned from his position as an advisory board member of the BSA
    saying he was saddened by their open discrimination.

    posted by Florida on 8-1-2008 at 9:06 am

15. Wow! Who knew there’d be such controversy here?
    Don’t undervalue the cookies. That BS (double entendre intended) popcorn can’t compete.
    I was never a scout, but my daughter was a Girl Scout for a while. She quit because she got tired of tea parties and the like.
    They could stand to toughen up the GS. More physical activity. No reason the girls can’t do most, if not all, the boys do.

    posted by BassMan on 8-1-2008 at 10:14 am

16. Zach – I do not believe the Boy Scouts are funded by the government. I could be wrong here, but I think most of the Boy Scouts funding comes from the United Way.

    posted by bzzyb on 8-1-2008 at 11:14 am

17. At the very least, many of them use government buildings and don’t pay to use them.

    posted by Zach on 8-1-2008 at 11:46 am

18. Actually, according to an ACLU publication, the Pentagon has a special expenditure for the Boy Scouts that allocates $7 MILLION for each yearly Jamboree, with no other group competing for this funding. Total expenditures from the Pentagon alone have exceeded $29 million in the last two decades. See Winkler v. Rumsfeld (2006) for more information.

    posted by Nicole on 8-1-2008 at 3:05 pm

19. I’m the father of two daughters who are both Boy Scouts, and Eagle Scout myself, and the Scoutmaster of a troop that caters to special needs kids (no we don’t use any government buildings).
    Despite its flaws, the Boy Scouts of America is a great program for kids.

    posted by Jay on 8-1-2008 at 3:11 pm

20. Interesting, everyone who reads Mental Floss is a boy/girl scout… except me!

    posted by PAUL on 8-1-2008 at 4:07 pm

21. It’s also important to note that when you refer to a racist, homophobic organization you should not refer to scouting in general. There are plenty of national scouting organizations outside of the USA that are tolerant and welcoming to all. The BSA has continually growing farther and farther from the original BP concepts, though this is certainly more prevalent in some troops than others.

    As someone who is a Chief Scout Award holder and who was up until recently a cub scout leader the stories I hear about some american troops sadden me.

    posted by Tristan Hartry on 8-1-2008 at 11:51 pm

22. As a Girl Scout working on her Gold Award currently, and knowing personally a couple of recent Eagle Scouts, I couldn’t resist putting in a few words on the matter.

    It really doesn’t matter whether one project or another has the same distinction, does it? The fact is that some projects have larger impacts than others. My Gold Award project, for example, has a far bigger impact on my community than my friend’s Eagle Scout project. How do I know this? He told me himself. Did he have to jump through more hoops to earn his place? Probably. Does it matter? Not really. The idea behind the project is, in theory, that the scout, boy or girl, is contributing to his/her community. The project isn’t earned for honor or distinction, it’s for the good stuff, helping people. I may be one in a thousand, but I’m not working on my project for me – I’m doing it for the kids.

    And no, I was not fed lines by any organization. For the record and such.

    posted by Alexandra on 8-2-2008 at 2:38 am

23. Right now my son is working on his first year in Cub Scouts but I hope that he will earn it sometime in the future.

    posted by Sarah on 1-20-2009 at 2:20 pm

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