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Lake Norman grad achieves Eagle Scout despite challenges
Special to the R&L
Proud parents Leisha and Jessie Smith pose with their son Bowen, who recently earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
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Published: November 23, 2008
When former Scoutmaster Dave Nagy met Bowen Smith seven years ago at a Boy Scout camp out, he knew the boy was special.
During the 2001 Fall Camporee, Bowen and Nagy first spoke one cool morning beside the campfire.
"I asked him how he slept last night and he initially responded, 'good,' " Nagy recalled. "Then he grabbed me and said 'Well, actually, I slept like crud, but I'm having a great time.' "
Bowen's cheerful outlook was especially memorable because he faces some special challenges: He is confined to a wheelchair and uses a ventilator.
But Bowen — a rising Webelos Scout at the time who was fulfilling one of his Arrow of Light requirements — was more than willing to rough it along with the rest of the Scouts, said Nagy, even as his ventilator ran off the car battery at night while he slept in his tent.
"He was full of life and enthusiasm beyond that of the average Scout," Nagy said.
That determination has led to one of the Scout's highest honors: on Oct. 27, Bowen, who is a member of Troop 171, achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. A ceremony honoring his accomplishment, which is achieved by less than 2 percent of boys who enter scouting, will be at Woodland Heights Elementary on Dec. 6.
Bowen, who graduated from Lake Norman High School in June, said his project was both challenging and close to his heart: building two wheelchair-accessible picnic tables and a concrete patio at Woodland Heights Elementary.
"When I was in elementary school, there was no real way for me to connect with my friends," said Bowen, who couldn't sit at their table. "I'm going to give somebody else the opportunity I didn't have."
Before he started his Eagle Scout project, Bowen had several hurdles to navigate. He first had to earn a minimum of 21 merit badges and plan and carry out a service project that benefits the community. Bowen, however, earned 25 merit badges with only one substitution badge for swimming.
He said his year-long project wasn't hard to implement because he had nearly 100 people to assist him. "I just had a lot of support and a lot of great ideas from different people," he said.
The design stage, he explained, was the most difficult part because he had to figure out how to add a foot to the end of each table and make it a workable table that anyone could use. At the school site, other than a few drainage problems, the process went "really smoothly," Bowen said.
But the path he took to get to the point where he could complete the project was a challenging one.
Bowen began scouting at the age of 7 as a Tiger Cub. Although Scouts can sometimes be difficult, Kevin Scruggs, scoutmaster for Troop 171, said Bowen was up to the challenge.
"To know Bowen is to know someone special," said Scruggs. "He never fails to make me laugh when I am around him. He has one of the most positive outlooks of any young man I have ever known. When things weren't going as planned in the project, he never frowned or even looked like it changed his attitude."
That attitude, said Scruggs, has a great deal to do with how the teen copes with his disabilities. "He learned long ago that life can be a challenge and not everything you do goes exactly as you want it to," the scoutmaster said.
Cameron Low, assistant scoutmaster for Troop 171, said Bowen's determination and positive outlook have helped him develop respect for and a bond with the other scouts in his troop and others his age.
Low said his son, Scott, and Bowen "have grown up together and respect each other as individuals." As a result, Scott and the other children "have learned that a physical impairment doesn't diminish the attributes of a person."
Bowen's Eagle Scout accomplishment, said Low, is impressive. "He is an inspiration for those struggling to get their Eagle Scout. He is an inspiration for anyone in life."
Completing the project was important to the teen.
"I was really excited it was finished. A lot of work went into it. On my end, I didn't realize how detailed it was until it was done."
Bowen was invited to Woodland Heights for lunch about a week after he finished so he could see how the students had reacted to the new addition. "The kids really enjoyed it," he said.
Very few people who know Bowen are surprised that he achieved Eagle Scout. Nagy said he knew Bowen was capable soon after he met him.
"Bowen is a sharp young man with quick responses to anything that comes his way," Nagy explained. "It took no time to know Bowen would for sure reach the rank of Eagle Scout. I have been scouting for 27 years now and you begin to know pretty quick what guys are going to make it all the way and which ones might not."
Bowen's mother is thrilled by her son's achievement.
"It was a great project and I'm really proud of him," said Leisha Smith. "It's given him the confidence of doing something that every boy doesn't do. In later years, it's going to give him some added confidence."
Bowen's father, Jessie Smith, said his son's accomplishment is something he's incredibly proud of.
"The Eagle Scout thing, that's the greatest thing he's ever achieved," said Smith. ""It took him a lot of determination to get done with that."
Smith said his son has shown that determination in other areas, including cultivating expertise and experience in hunting. The determination, said Smith, comes at least in part from the family's Native American heritage (the family is 100 percent Lumbee Indian).
"We put a lot into our heritage," said Smith. "I think it's helped him grow up a lot, being strong spirited."
Bowen has even bigger plans for his future. He is enrolled at Mitchell Community College and taking classes in Web design.
As for others who are seeking to achieve Eagle Scout, Bowen offers a little advice.
"You've got to plan something that you know will mean something to you and to others," he said. "You will want to do something that you'll remember for the rest of your life, something that will be permanent to some degree."
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