Aiden Buono-Petullo has the honor of earning the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) program – rank of Eagle Scout. All of Buono-Petullo’s hard work and dedication paid off as this honorable title is truly one that is earned.
The path and process to becoming an Eagle Scout for the BSA program is not easy and is a huge milestone; Heart Of American Council says only 4% of Scouts receive this honor. Buono-Petullo, who is a junior at LRHS, shares hurdles he had to personally overcome on his quest to Eagle Scout, saying, “Some hardships I’ve had to overcome while working at Eagle were getting involved and becoming a leader. In Scouts it was difficult to find what the role was in the troop, [asking myself] ‘how can I help others?’ I’ve had to find out for myself that I could help the Scouts by working with them to rank up.” Buono-Petullo found helping other scouts was his way of showing leadership and his dedication to his scout group.
The Eagle Scout process is long and hard as you need to complete many Scout activities throughout the year and earn 21 merit badges, 14 of which are specific to the process. There are 7 stages to climb the ranks of before becoming an Eagle Scout. Buono-Petullo shares his process and says, “First I had to rank up to all the other ranks. To do this, it involved a lot of work with studying different things about Scouting, proving I knew them. Then I had to prove my leadership, learning how to help others [and] how to plan and discuss events and more. After that I had to earn 21 merit badges. Some were not easy. I had to cook, write essays, do lots of paperwork, build chairs and much more.”
Courtesy of Aiden Buono-Petullo
Buono-Petullo continues and says that it’s very hard to become an Eagle Scout as it takes a very long time and ends in a big service project.. “The last thing I had to do was my project. This involved contacting schools, planning out the project, gathering materials, making lists and keeping all of this in one place easy for me to find.” Buono-Petullo goes on to say how the project was very hard but overcame this by keeping organized. The process to becoming an Eagle Scout is not easy as there are many tasks to complete but Buono-Petullo shows his dedication as he earned this award after all of his hard work.
After all of Buono-Petullo’s hardships and long process, he shares his feeling on earning the high honor award. “When I finally achieved the title I felt relieved that I had finally made it to the end and could finally call myself an Eagle Scout after so long.” Buono-Petullo mentions that he “originally never truly wanted it, but something my grandfather told me made me want it badly. I worked every day to show him I made it and now I have.”
Buono-Petulloalso says how he has a plan for the future with this highly honored title. “My plans are to continue working hard, doing well in school, and getting into a good college so I can become a nurse.” Buono-Petullo goes on saying, “Once I’m a nurse, I plan to help out as much as I can, saving as many lives and making as many lives as best as they can be.” He is excited for the future and what it brings, thankful that his grandfather pushed him to earn this honorable title and cannot wait for the future.
Becoming an Eagle Scout is a very hard challenge and Buono-Petullo proved to himself and the whole community that he is worthy of it. He shares that he is very glad that he pushed himself into earning this award and is thankful that his grandfather encouraged. Buono-Petullo is excited for what the future brings and can’t wait to help people out in the future!
