Cookie drive helps boy scout advance in the 'ranks'

Published Dec. 17, 2008
By Senior Airman Kelly LeGuillon
435th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

RAMSTEIN AIE BASE, Germany -- Bake cookies, get promoted. While that sounds much easier than the military promotion system, it sums up exactly what a teenager from New Jersey did to gain his next "rank" in the Boy Scouts.

So what may have seemed like just another holiday cookie drive at Ramstein, actually was the result of months of planning and a long journey across the ocean. Ian DiFiore, a fifteen year-old Boy Scout from Troop 36 in Oradell, New Jersey, handed out cookies at the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility Dec. 12 for the final stage of his leadership service project on his journey to Eagle Scout.

Currently a Life Scout, Ian must meet six requirements to obtain Eagle Scout. He must be active in his troop as a Life Scout for six months, demonstrate that he lives by the Scout Oath and Law in his daily life, earn a total of 21 merit badges, serve actively in a position of responsibility for six months, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in his service project, and finally meet a board of review.

He chose to come to Germany for his leadership service project after becoming the cooking instructor for his troop and possessing a desire to help wounded military members.

While even getting to Germany may have seemed like a difficult task - his biggest challenge was organizing his troop members to make this project possible. Ian organized 35 scouts into five to six into which covered specific areas of the project including baking, packaging and writing letters of appreciation totaling over 175 hours of work.

"The purpose of the project is to boost service member's morale," said Ian. "The cookies are a way of comforting them in a time of need and letting them know that people back home in the states care and are thinking about them."

After flying over from the states with his mother, Ian was in Germany for four days handing out approximately 1,100 cookies to service members transitioning through the CASF on their way back to the states.

Ian's actions did not go unnoticed.

"The patients appreciate the effort Americans are making to give them a little bit of home during this holiday season," said Tech. Sgt. Shea Harkness, a CASF in-house coordinator.

And though Ian's overall goal was to achieve his Eagle Scout rank, he said he learned a lot from completing the project.

"I learned that with hard work and teamwork you can touch a lot of people in a great way," he said.

Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America. The rank of Eagle Scout is held for life and since introduced in 1911 has been attained by 1.7 million young men.