Published: November 26, 2008 02:22 pm         

Scouts no stranger to high adventure

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Get Lee Smith, Aaron Nettie, Judson Harris, Tyler Evans and Adam Hall together, and you might as well forget about getting a word in edge-wise.

Friends since they were 6 years old, the young men already have more adventure stories than many old men.

Once their scout troop took what was supposed to be a short hike up a mountain. But when darkness set in, they were trapped up there all night. Most of the boys had no jackets, despite the fact that it was November.

One of them had a bottle of water, one had a flashlight, another had some matches, and that’s about it.

That, according to Lee’s father Mark Smith, was when the boys learned the value of the Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared.”

One of the most significant journeys for the friends, all high-school seniors, was the earning of their Eagle Scout rank, the highest possible achievement for a Boy Scout.

According to Mark Smith, only 3 percent of Boy Scouts earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

“For all five to stay together and to do this is amazing,” said Smith, who is the service coordinator for Boy Scout Troop 283, the troop to which all five boys belong.

The troop’s scoutmaster is Jeff Lucas.

The scouts are well aware of the significance of their achievement.

Nettie, who is a member of the Boy Scouts high-adventure Venturing, said he and his friends have developed a work ethic and learned leadership values.

“We’ve learned how to be disciplined and to depend on yourself,” added Hall. “You learn a lot that video games and staying at home wouldn’t teach you.”

“They know how to use their time,” said Mark Smith, who said the scouts are all either in the band, play sports or are involved in other activities.

In addition, they all have a 4.0 grade point average; have earned multiple awards through scouting, school and activities; and are all members of the Order of the Arrow, the scouts’ national honor society.

“Scouting has helped that a lot with the work ethic,” Smith said.

The Boy Scouts work ethic definitely came into play with the scouts’ service projects.

Nettie put together a playground at Enon Baptist Church in Morris; Harris installed a Sheetrock wall for a storage room at Liberty Baptist Church, where the troop meets; Evans painted his high-school band room and cleaned hundreds of trophies; Smith built a brick sign for the Creel family cemetery in Kimberly; and Hall built and painted a pressbox at the Pinson Elementary School softball field.

They by no means did it themselves. Each scout organized his project, headed up crews of up to 30 or 40 people, and accrued well over 1,000 service hours all told.

“These are the life skills they’re all learning,” said Mark Smith, who added that his son Lee has assisted in 12 Eagle projects. “We have a good diversity of Eagle Scouts in our troop.”

Their reputations precede them. The scouts said that people often ask them to “do stuff.”

“They know that we know how to do that kind of stuff,” said Evans.

In addition to earning awards and learning to work hard, the boys unanimously agreed that one of the most important things they’ve gotten out of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts is their friendship.

This is despite the fact that they go to different schools. Smith and Nettie go to Mortimer Jordan High School and Harris, Evans and Hall attend Pinson Valley High School.

“We’re all best friends. I think we’ll be best friends for life,” said Nettie. “I don’t think I would have made Eagle Scout without them.”