Hosting Blood Drive not a good Eagle Project???

[woopzitwasme 10]

I was hoping to host a blood drive at my church for my eagle project, but my advisor told me that it doesnt fall under the category of a "legacy" project. He asked me to explain how it was long-lasting, and I told him that saving a life through a blood donation seemed pretty long lasting, but he wouldnt buy it! I would consider that to be a very honorable, long-lasting eagle project, but it just wasnt "traditional" enough for him.

 

Any advice? Does this seem pretty extreme to you?

[Horizon 97]

I have heard that some districts only approve Eagle projects that result in a permanent structure, including a plaque naming the Scout, Troop, etc.

 

Others may comment on this - but it is not unique.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

I am on the District Advanecement Committee and I can tell you that we generally take a dim view of Blood Drives as an Eagle Project. That doesnt mean we prohibit them, we would have to see in the write up where the Scout shows leadership. If the scout intends to call the blood bank and have a few guys set up for the Blood drive it will fall short. The Blood Bank people will set up their equipment and there is no way an Eagle Candidate is going to show leadership with the Nurses and trained Blood Bank personnel. State laws and Feseral requirements governing blood acquisition, testing and handling will be followed with or without the scout. Generally the most that an untrained person can do is run the orange juice and cookir table and that is not Eagle quality.

 

However, saying all that, we had a scout recently do a project that contained a Blood Drive. The Blood Drive wasnt the focus, the scout also organized a Health Fair that also had a Blood Drive. Besides the Blood Bank, representatives of 12 other organizations where there and the scout put together the plan of the 2 day fair, organized set up and take down and assigned workers. It was very nice, and wasnt "just a blood drive".

 

I can only talk about what I have seen sucessfully done in my corner of the world. Blood drives to be eagle worthy require a lot of additional activitis besides collecting blood. The main idea, how are you showing leadership and calling and scheduling the Red Cross to show up on Sunday the 19th isnt it

[Bob White 20]

woopitwazme

 

I am sorry your local project advisor gave you the wrong reason. There is no such thing as a legacy project nor does the BSA require that the project have any "lasting value". What is required is that you, that is YOU the canditate be the leader, and witha blood drive you are nor. All you are is the promoter. The Red Cross is the leader, and is you are unsure of that I can opnly suggest that you try to tell the Red cross what to do and see how far you get.

 

Hosting a blood drive is a good thing to do, but it is not an Eagle project it is a Red Cross project lead by Trained Red Cross professionals and volunteers according to Red Cross procedures.

 

You need to plan and lead a project to completion and not help on a project lead by others. So your advisor was right but for the wrong reason.

 

Good luck on reaching your goal of Eagle.

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[scoutldr 726]

"The BSA Red Cross is the leader"

 

Huh?

[NJCubScouter 1389]

My council's "Trail to Eagle" packet speaks to this subject, when discussing what kinds of projects will be approved, as follows:

 

"Unit leadership should be especially careful of "Drives/collections" and "one day" projects, because of the difficulty in satisfying all of the requirements of a meaningful Eagle project. Any idea of this type should be thoroughly discussed with your District Advancement Chairman before any planning begins."

 

I am not quite sure what they mean by "one day projects", because I have seen a number of projects where the actual labor takes place on one day. The problem with drives/collections is clear enough, however; as OGE and BobWhite said, it is difficult to demonstrate sufficient "leadership" with such a project. In five years with my son's troop, I have seen two projects of this type. One was a project to collect American flags in need of retirement, and hold a mass flag retirement ceremony at a historic site. I am actually somewhat surprised that this one was approved; I suspect it was borderline, and possibly the historic/patriotic aspect pushed it over the top. The other was a food drive mainly involving collection of food donations outside a supermarket on two weekends (and related promotion), and I am pretty certain that this was only approved because of special circumstances. (The Eagle candidate in question is severely disabled and had required many other accommodations on his way to Eagle; nevertheless he did an excellent job with his project, as he had done throughout his Scouting career.)

 

I'd have to say though, that either of these borderline/special-circumstances projects would seem to involve more demonstration of leadership than would a blood drive.

 

There is, however, no "legacy" requirement for an Eagle project. In our council there seems to be an unofficial preference for "lasting" projects as well, although I think they are somewhat more flexible than your advisor. My own son is somewhat struggling with his choice of projects right now as well, for basically this reason.

[packsaddle 753]

Welcome to the forums, woopzitwasme. Great moniker, by the way.

 

In fairness, I happen to know that blood drives ARE sometimes approved for Eagle projects because I've given blood at them, although not for this unit, nor for this district. Evidently there is some variation in interpretation although in this I agree with Bob White.

 

The Eagle project is supposed to allow you to demonstrate leadership through service to the community (specifically through the service project).

From the booklet: cover letter, "Before you now is the opportunity to master yet another set of skills. These skills are encompassed in the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout. One of these requirements is your demonstration of leadership skills. You do so by planning and carrying out an Eagle Scout leadership service project."

and then,

"How big a project is required? There are no specific requirements, as long as the project is helpful to a religious institution, school, or community. The amount of time spent by you in planning your project and the actual working time spent in carrying out the project should be as much as is necessary for you to demonstrate your leadership of others."

 

The emphasis is on demonstration of leadership. For a blood drive, there is an additional twist in that the project cannot benefit a private entity. "The project also may not be performed for a business or an individual, be of a commercial nature, or be a fund-raiser."

Some blood drives are done on behalf of for-profit medical facilities. You didn't mention who would actually be DOING the blood drive so this is also a question. But the main objection is that after making a few phone calls and perhaps doing some publicity, the actual blood drive is led and executed by professionals. You have no input to procedures, or process. You really don't demonstrate much in the way of leadership, other than taking the initiative to arrange for it to happen. There are better projects, plenty of them, out there for you to lead.

 

[eolesen 10]

Our district is another which takes a dim view on collection drives, be it books, flags, canned food, or blood. They're not "banned", but they do need to clear the hurdle of demonstrating how you plan to show leadership, and the level of pre-planning you will be performing.

 

Plan to be putting a lot more time into the planning portion of the project than you do the actual project. I like to see enough detail put into a plan that a Scout can hand the approved project binder over to another Life Scout on the day of the project. We've never actually done it, but the plan should be detailed enough that any Life Scout could execute the project in your absence.

 

 

[Twocubdad 665]

Hi, Woopz, welcome to the forums.

 

Our council has many rules regarding Eagle projects including an out-right ban on blood drives. I disagree with many of their rules, but I have to say I agree with this one.

 

I think some of the other posts have explained the real reason behind the concerns with bloodmobiles. Due to privacy and disease concerns, the only thing bloodmoble volunteers (including Eagle candidates) can really do is to line up potential donors and serve cookies. I have to agree that such a project would be difficult to meet the Eagle requirements.

 

I have to say, however, that my heart is with you. About 35 years ago my Eagle project was to sponsor a bloodmobile. Back in the day, not only did I recruit donors, but I organized, managed and trained 20 or more volunteers who did everything but stick people with needles. It was a much different project then.

[evmori 11]

What is a legacy project?

 

I'm with OGE on this. This project would be tough to show leadership in.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[NJCubScouter 1389]

Ed, it sounds like they are using the term "legacy project" to refer to a project that you can put a little nameplate on that says "John Smith, Troop 123, Eagle Project, August 2008". Or words to that effect. In other words, something tangible that will be the Scout's "legacy", like a footbridge, ramps for the disabled, etc. Most of the projects done in my son's troop have fallen into that category, but I think the point here is that there are other types of valid projects as well, as long as the requirements are met. I think there is general agreement here that a Scout is unlikely to meet the requirements with a blood drive.

[FScouter 24]

How about picking up trash along the roadside? Would that qualify?

[mikecummings157 10]

We had a scout set up a Blood Drive who exibited great leadership a fews years ago. As part of the project, he and other boys in the troop got the word out on the project, including getting on local TV and radio to promote it. They also spent many hours actually signing people up all over town, as well as worked with the Red Cross the day of the actual donations. They also took care of the physical atrrangements for the day of the donation.

[packsaddle 753]

Oh well, as long as we have this topic to beat to death, I'd be interested in reading what everyone thinks 'leadership' means, within the narrow context of the Eagle service project.

Now the first thing that comes to mind is the job foreman or drill instructor type who barks orders and makes everything work like a well-oiled machine. That's pretty much what I am as a principal investigator for some research project.

However, I am willing to consider the possibility that an administrator doesn't have to be a mere percentage parasite. In the ideal world an administrator could also be a leader.

So then there is the leader who carefully plans a project and selects people and resources carefully so that once begun, the project is pretty much self-directing. I actually know one administrator who can do this! Wow.

Then there are leaders who have the vision for a project, work in the background to secure the support and resources and then assign the project to a project leader who then executes it. I think most administrators think they do this. Most of them are sadly mistaken.

Anyway, in each case I think leadership is displayed but often it seems that scouts are expected to be job foremen or something along those lines.

Am I correct? Is this the way it is and should it be this way?

 

Edited for clarity.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[John-in-KC 311]

FScouter,

 

In my neck of the woods, setting up a one-time service project day would not.

 

OTOH, recruiting a Troop and its Chartered Partner to enter "Adopt a Highway" litter control program, taking the safety training and then training the Troop and Partner, and planning/coordinating/supervising the first years' quarterly cleanup days, to include safety teams during the work, has flown.