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Family tradition

Oakleaf boy is a third generation Cub Scout

By Bruce Hope bruce@opcfla.com
Posted 10/14/20

OAKLEAF – The Cub Scouts are a great way for young children to begin learning valuable life skills, make new friends and engage with their families in different ways than the usual. This is true of …

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Family tradition

Oakleaf boy is a third generation Cub Scout


Posted

OAKLEAF – The Cub Scouts are a great way for young children to begin learning valuable life skills, make new friends and engage with their families in different ways than the usual. This is true of most scouts, but especially so of the Eckard family. Grandfather Bill, son Bryan, and grandson Logan are three generations who have all been involved in the Cub Scouts.

“We have a little boy; I’m actually the Den Leader for the Wolf Den at pack 223, which are second graders, and his name is Logan Eckard is a second-grader currently,” said Christina Price, Secretary of Cub Scout Pack 223 in Oakleaf. “He just joined our pack last year, so we’re getting to know the family. So, his dad would take him sometimes to the pack meetings and sometimes the grandfather would take him. So, over the course of the last year or so we kind of got to know the family, and they are three generations of scouting.”

While Bill, the Eckard patriarch, was not actually a Cub Scout himself, his involvement in the organization through his son, is the first of the three generations.

“We started back in the late eighties, early nineties, when my wife and I first moved to Jacksonville,” said grandfather Bill. “My son [Bryan] was four years old when we moved here. After a year or so, we started looking to find an avenue for him to get involved, make other friends and be able to get outside and do things. The enthusiasm of the leadership of his pack [220 in Mandarin Oaks] really gave us that push.” Bill admits he was never really an outdoors type of guy, but his son’s involvement and enjoyment motivated him to become involved and to make it something of a family affair. His wife became involved, being responsible for all of the awards for the scouts in the pack. Bill eventually became the assistant cubmaster.

Bill and Bryan enjoyed their involvement in Cub Scouts. Eventually, as children tend to do, Bryan grew up and had his own family. Though he was no longer living in Florida, Bryan and his family would return, and Logan would follow in his dad’s Cub Scout footsteps.

Bill particularly enjoyed the Pinewood Derby with Bryan. Logan seems to have picked up on that.

“By his final year in the Cub Scouts, he [Bryan] came in third in the pack, which was eligible to go to district,” said Bill. “We went to the district races and we took third there. That was fantastic.”

Logan, according to his grandfather, is the outdoors type. He loves anything to with nature and loves animals. That mindset fits in perfectly with being a Cub Scout. He got in early with the scouts while living in St. Louis and transferred his membership to the Oakleaf pack when his family moved to Clay County.

How does it make Bill Eckard feel to see his grandson Logan as a Cub Scout?

“It’s just really fulfilling that I was able to instill something in Bryan that he could carry on; that he was able to love something so much that he could pass onto my grandson.”