Beyond what is required: Another Scout earns all merit badges

From Oceanside, Long Island, New York, we get brief reports of an Eagle Scout, Shawn Goldsmith, who earned all 121 merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts of America.  He finished work on his last badge, for bugling, in November.

Eagle Scout Shawn Goldsmith, Troop 240, Greater New York Council - Goldsmith earned all 121 Merit Badges - Photo from GNY Council

From WBBH, Channel 2, an NBC affiliate television news operation on Long Island:

Goldsmith says 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. He was awarded his final badges on Dec. 19.

Goldsmith is a freshman at Binghamton University and hopes to become a businessman and politician.

Shawn is a member of Troop 240, Greater New York Council (Bronx), whose chartered organization is Riverdale Presbyterian Church.  Shawn was editor of his high school’s newspaper, and he served as an intern in the Long Island office of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.

More information:

• Press release from Troop 240, the Bronx
• From a blogger and Scouter in Frederick, Maryland
• Home page for Troop 240, “The Eagle’s Nest”

Related posts at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:

• “Earning every Boy Scout merit badge”
• “88-year-old man finally gets Eagle Scout rank”
• “Scout Centennial video”
• “Science history slips away:  Ralph Alpher and Big Bang”

Update – other mentions:

• Strollerderby blog
• Boundless Line, “Shawn Goldsmith does hard things”
• Wizbang Pop
• J-Walk Blog, “Super Scout”
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Boston Globe
• NPR, All Things Considered, on January 3, 2009