Shawn Goldsmith - Almost Unheard-Of: Boy Scout Earns All 121 Badges

By william on 8:55 PM

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NEW YORK – A Long Island teenager has earned all 121 merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts of America. It's an accomplishment the local arm of the organization calls "an almost unheard-of feat." Oceanside resident Shawn Goldsmith earned his final badge — for bugling — in time for his 18th birthday in November. He far surpassed the 21 badges required to achieve the elite rank of Eagle Scout.

He said he took about five years to earn his first 62 badges and then nearly doubled that number in a matter of months. He did it with the encouragement of his grandmother, who died shortly before he reached his goal.

The Binghamton University freshman was awarded his final badges on Dec. 19. He said he hopes to become a businessman and politician.

6 comments for this post

Anonymous

Did he earn the rank of Eagle Scout as well? This is an important fact left out of the original article....

Posted on December 31, 2008 at 3:19 AM  
Anonymous

Amazing feat. Those of us in Scouting/with Eagle Scouts commend Shawn. With motivation like he has, he'll go far!!

Posted on December 31, 2008 at 3:42 AM  
Anonymous

The article said that he has surpassed the badge requirement for Eagle Scout, so we're assuming that he's already got it.

Posted on December 31, 2008 at 8:55 AM  
Anonymous

There is much more involved in becoming an Eagle Scout than just earning merit badges.

Posted on January 1, 2009 at 7:27 AM  
Anonymous

The link below indicates Shawn earned his Eagle Award and the photo shows the badge on his pocket! Shawn obviously soars with the Eagles!

Posted on January 7, 2009 at 3:04 AM  
Anonymous

Including the link would help!

http://www.bsa-gnyc.org/openrosters/ViewOrgPageLink.asp?orgkey=1161&itemkey=455

Posted on January 7, 2009 at 3:05 AM