He’s volunteered for decades on Eagle Scout boards of review; here are his two favorite memories

Steve Scarano is a 76-year-old Eagle Scout currently living in Vista, California. After growing up in New Mexico, serving as an officer in the Marine Corps and working 30 years for a municipal police department in southern California (from which he retired as a captain), Scarano now serves on Eagle Scout boards of review in North San Diego County.

Over the years, he’s been interviewed countless times for new assignments and promotions, and he’s conducted countless interviews with others seeking employment, transfer or promotion.

“I could not begin to measure the number of who, what, when, where, why and hows I’ve posed to victims, reporting parties and bad guys,” Scarano says.

Still, though, every once in a while, something surprises him.

Scarano was kind enough to email me the story below about two such instances.

“What Good Turn did you do today?”

It was seriously past 8 o’clock, I was full of standard-issue pizza and the three of us were ready to wrap up our board of review with this final Eagle Scout candidate. His project book looked good, and his character was of recruiting-poster quality. I wanted to go home.

Then, as he was wont to do, the fellow on my right asked the boy this one more question, and I sank back into my chair.

It was the youngster’s response that brought me back.

“Oh my,” I thought, as I looked down at the ring my grandmother gave me 49 years ago when I earned my own Eagle Scout award. “I wish I would have had the presence of mind and clarity of thought then that this lad before us has now.”

The question thrown to him with an almost nonchalant air was the challenge, “What Good Turn did you do today?”

This was not one of those traditional board of review questions that Scoutmasters prepare their charges for. My head jerked back up, and I looked at him for his response. I was mostly curious, but I was intrigued by the way his face suggested an accounting of his day and a worthy answer to the query.

“A Scout is trustworthy,” I was thinking, as the boy unabashedly looked at his wristwatch. “It’s a key pillar of the Scout Law.

“Stick to it, son. Be well with it. Do it the right way.”

Perhaps 10 seconds of deliberation elapsed before he looked at each of us, his watch again, and then with great confidence replied, “Well, the day isn’t over yet.”

I’m pretty sure the boy left there that night knowing he had work to do — an opportunity to discover — and that he did his duty. As for me, I am better for having had my head jerked.

My hope was renewed, and my admiration and gratitude for this Scout grew large. There is always time to do something useful, noble, true and good. The day isn’t over yet. I want to be awake for it.

“One chip at a time”

There was this other evening when I asked a candidate if he ever had the opportunity to right a wrong to make an otherwise unsatisfactory situation — such as bullying or unfairness on campus or a troop meeting, for example — better.

He thought for a moment and described a time when a student came to his school somewhat late in the year and for some reason was shunned by the other kids. The Scout introduced himself and asked if he could sit with the new student at lunchtime.

It turned out that they both enjoyed potato chips, and they began a practice of dumping their bags in a pile and commingling the different flavors they brought each day as their friendship grew.

I considered that an adequate response, and we moved on to other questions, although even then it occurred to me that this was a sterling example of community-building. As the other two board members and I were wrapping up the session about 20 minutes later, something inspired me to offer a closing question I had never before considered in previous interviews.

I asked him what advice he would give to old folks like us about making the world a better place to live.

He didn’t hesitate.

And it was apparent that he was responding from the truth of his heart when he connected his lunchtime chip mixing with a wider view that stunned us.

“You just have to do it one chip at a time,” he said.

With that, he taught me that much of my life’s view — the so-called big picture I had been trained to see — had been, for him, seen in the simple currency of bags of snack food.

Photos courtesy of Steve Scarano