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Overcast Trio dedicated to scouting success
Seaford Boy Scout Troop 239 never had more than three members earn their Eagle rank in a single year. Until 2015.
This year, a troop-record seven scouts earned the prestigious honor, which meant a lot of work for Scoutmaster Jim Hayden and the troop’s two Eagle coaches, Tom Cleary and Donald Paulson. While they are quick to give credit to the boys, the three leaders’ hard work, persistence and dedication played a crucial role, and they share the honor of the Herald Citizen’s Person of the Year.
“We just keep them on the path,” said Cleary, the troop’s scoutmaster from 2003 to 2012, and now its assistant scoutmaster. He explained that with all the demands on a teenager’s schedule — school, extracurricular activities and jobs — working toward Eagle Scout on top of that can be overwhelming.
The troop’s aspiring Eagles are divided between Cleary and Paulson, who spend dozens of hours guiding each boy through a required community service project. Hayden must see that each boy moves up the five ranks that lead to Eagle Scout, and earns the required merit badges.
“In my case,” Paulson said, “I think I get the easy part of the job. A heck of a lot of groundwork goes into it from the people that run the troop.”
Paulson, scoutmaster from 1999 to 2001, saw his son, D.J., earn his Eagle rank in 2004, and Cleary’s son, John, followed in 2010. Hayden’s son is currently in the process. Thirty-eight of the troop’s 49 Eagle Scouts have earned the rank since 1999, when Paulson took over its leadership.
“They have to really want to do this,” Hayden said of the scouts. “It has to come from within them, otherwise they will not succeed.”
The project process
Turning Boy Scouts into Eagles isn’t just about helping them succeed as individuals, though that is a major part of the motivation. It is ultimately about helping the community as a whole, because Seaford residents benefit from the projects the boys complete.
