How the journey of this Scout with cerebral palsy inspired everyone around her

It was at one of her brother’s outdoor events that Maggie Whitney discovered her passion for Scouting.

The outing was open to siblings and focused on target sports, swimming and climbing. Maggie, who has cerebral palsy, had no problem with the target sports and the swimming.

However, the climbing, her dad feared, might have been a bridge too far. Maggie needed leg braces to help her walk. “How could she possibly climb that tower?” he thought.

“I was like, ‘Maggie, there are things you can do and things you can’t,” says Maggie’s father, Chad. “This is probably one that you can’t do.”

Maggie, however, wasn’t so sure.

The camp’s climbing staff overheard what we’ll call a “spirited” conversation between Maggie and her father. As the climbing experts talked with the Whitneys about what Maggie could and couldn’t safely do, they became more and more convinced that she could, in fact, climb that tower. As the conversation continued, more and more camp staffers and climbing instructors joined in.

“So now it’s about 10 against one,” Chad says. “I was like, ‘No, we can’t.’ And they were like, ‘Hey, we’ve got her.’”

Finally, Chad relented.

Maggie put on her helmet and harness, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“When she came down the tower, you could physically see her self-esteem go from here (Chad holds his hand at his waist) to here (Chad moves his hand above his head),” Chad says. “When she got down, she said, ‘Dad, I want to be a Scout.’ And that was that.”

“I enjoyed it right off the bat”

Maggie’s brother Jack is three years younger than Maggie. When the Scouting bug bit Maggie, Jack was already active in a troop near their home in Waveland, Mississippi.

This was in the early days of girls being allowed to join Scouts BSA, and the closest troop the Whitneys could find for Maggie to join was across the Louisiana state line in New Orleans, about an hour away. So Maggie joined Troop 150G, and, shortly after, Jack transferred his membership to Troop 150B.

Maggie loved it.

She would get so excited for the Monday night meetings that she’d sleep in her Scout uniform the night before.

When Jack was the only Scout in the house, Chad, his wife, Amanda, and Jack had been a little more lackadaisical about attending outings and meetings. They’d go for a month straight, then maybe skip a couple of meetings to catch their breath.

When Maggie joined, the entire family was all in. She wouldn’t let them miss a meeting or special event.

“I enjoyed it right off the bat,” she says. “I was getting requirements signed off right away. I was a Tenderfoot by my fourth meeting.”

If anyone was ever feeling tired or not in the mood to make the drive, Maggie would set them straight.

“She wouldn’t let us miss any meetings,” Chad says.

Very quickly thereafter, Maggie set a goal for herself. She wanted to become an Eagle Scout.

Overcoming challenges

Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. There were things Maggie could do well, like swimming. There were things she could do in spurts, like biking. And there were things she struggled with, like the longer hikes required to earn the rank of Eagle.

On especially tough hikes, Chad would serve as his daughter’s “walking stick.”

As the Whitneys got more comfortable in Troop 150G and began to get to know other families, they learned that the troop had already produced three Eagle Scouts who had cerebral palsy, thanks in large part to the dedication of now-retired Scoutmaster Larry Forest, who worked as an occupational therapist when he wasn’t supervising the troop’s activities.

Not one to be left behind, Jack, too, began to earnestly work to achieve the rank of Eagle. At times, he would lead the way with his sister behind him. At other times, Maggie would take the lead, and Jack would lend his support.

“When I first joined, it really wasn’t about being an Eagle Scout for me,” Jack says. “It was about doing something fun.

“Then, at our first summer camp, we met with an older youth who was an Eagle Scout. He was a very nice guy, and he was a leader. And I don’t know that he could have had any more of an impact on me, because I saw what he did and how he lived as an Eagle Scout. And I said, ‘I want to be like him.’”

For their Eagle Scout service projects, Jack and Whitney both led efforts to help victims of Hurricane Ida, a 2021 storm that ended up being the second-most damaging hurricane to hit Louisiana behind Hurricane Katrina.

Crossing the finish line

They finished their Eagle Scout service projects within a week of each other.

They completed their boards of review on the same night.

And they officially became Eagle Scouts during the same court of honor.

Outside of Maggie herself, the person who benefitted the most from Maggie’s Scouting journey might have been Jack.

“I had a few different mentors along the way,” Jack says, “and Maggie was one of the ones that helped me get to Eagle, because if it weren’t for her insisting that we go to those Monday meetings, I don’t think I would have made it. She inspired me because she was unrelenting in her Scouting.”

When Jack attached Maggie’s Eagle Scout pin to her uniform during their court of honor, he could hear people in the audience sobbing with emotion.

Remember those climbing instructors who convinced Chad to let Maggie give climbing a shot? They’ve benefitted as well. Remember that spirited conversation when it was 10 against one?

“Several of the adults that were on that climbing staff have said to me, ‘I spent my life volunteering for this program, and sometimes I wonder why am I here. Well, your daughter showed me why I’m here.’”

And as for Maggie herself … What did she get out of this whole thing?

She says she wants to someday be a Scoutmaster, like Larry Forest, who helped all those kids be part of something special over the years.

It benefitted her so much, she wants to make sure it benefits others as well.

“I don’t know what exactly is in my future, but I do know I want to become a Scoutmaster,” she says, her eyes filling with tears, “because Mr. Larry made such an impact on me.”