Lynchburg-area Boy Scouts reach the top 2 percent

You might call them Brothers in Wings.

Last week, both 17-year-old Patrick Hamilton and his 15-year-old brother Daniel received their Eagle badges, this pinnacle of Boy Scout accomplishment celebrated in a joint ceremony at Timberlake United Methodist Church.

“Only about two percent of everyone who starts out in Scouts gets to Eagle,” said Patrick.

Of course, there are reasons for that. Heavy attrition begins to set in when most scouts reach high school age. They get involved in sports or other extracurricular activities. They take jobs. They find girlfriends who demand more of their time.

But then there’s Patrick Hamilton, who participates in band (sousaphone), marching band (tuba) and track (distance events) at Jefferson Forest High School, as well maintaining his active membership in Boy Scout Troop 48, which has produced more than 80 Eagle Scouts in its nearly 100-year history.

Daniel, meanwhile, plans to stick with scouting despite having “eagled” at a relatively young age.

“We have a pretty good record as far as retention is concerned,” said Scoutmaster Ed McDowell. “We sometimes have scouts who stick with us when they’re in college as assistant scoutmasters, even when they’ve aged out at 18 as scouts.”

“I didn’t know if I was going to stick with it,” Patrick Hamilton said, “but it’s kept me interested. I like the trips – we’ve gone hiking on the Appalachian Trail and white-water rafting.”

“We’ve been lucky to have some active adult leaders who help with these things,” McDowell said.

As for Daniel, it didn’t hurt having a kindred spirit in the same house.

“They really weren’t competitive about this at all,” said Stephanie Hamilton, the boys’ mother. “They helped each other, and Patrick waited a few months for his ceremony until Daniel could catch up.”

According to McDowell, it’s not unusual for siblings to reach Eagle status, but having two brothers receive their badges at the same ceremony is unique.

In all, over two million young men have earned Eagle badges — including some you might expect (Neil Armstrong, Bill Bradley, Stephen Spielberg, Sam Walton) and others you wouldn’t (Michael Moore, L. Ron Hubbard).

Reaching that point requires the earning of 21 merit badges (“Learning how to tie all the different knots was the hardest for me,” Patrick said), the completion of an Eagle Scout project, and an appearance before a Board of Review.

For Daniel Hamilton, also a Jefferson Forest band member, the project was building a trophy case for the band.

“We had some trophies that were six and seven feet high,” said JF band director David Webb, “and we really didn’t have a place to display them.”

Patrick, meanwhile, constructed some benches for the band’s practice area at Forest Elementary School.

“It’s out where the track is, and that’s used by people in the community as well as the schools,” Webb said, “Before the benches, there was really nowhere to sit except on the ground.”

The Hamilton brothers got into scouting after the family moved to Virginia several years ago.

“Some of my friends were involved, and they talked about it a lot,” said Daniel.

Earlier, Patrick entered scouting as a Webelos, a transitional phase between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.

“Some scouts came to our door selling popcorn,” he recalled, “and I talked to them a little bit about scouting and just decided to join the troop.”

He even bought the popcorn.