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LINDON -- It's estimated that of all the boys who enter Boy Scouts, only 5 percent will go on to earn their Eagle.
Earning an Eagle requires plenty of hard work; and as one young man from Lindon learned recently, it may also require the love of a community.
For as long as his family can remember, Brady Thompson has always loved going to Scouts.
"He just gets up and is excited days beforehand. Hours beforehand, he's telling you he wants to go now," says Jordan Thompson, Brady's brother.
Brady has always wanted his Eagle.
"It has been his goal since he started Cub Scouts, that he wanted to be an Eagle. So every court of honor he's like, ‘When am I getting my Eagle?'" says Lori Thompson, Brady's mother.
Getting his Eagle was a serious challenge. Brady had all but one of the required 21 badges by age 14, but then his health took a turn for the worse.
Brady began having seizures before his fourth birthday.
"He had his first grand mal seizure, then we knew something was up, and that's when our doctors got involved," Lori says.
After years of testing, and over a dozen different medications, Brady's seizures continued.
"They don't have a name for what he has, just uncontrolled epilepsy," Lori says.
"We feed him, take him to the bathroom, keep him from falling into stuff," says Darrell Thompson, Brady's father.
"It used to be I would run back to the calendar and mark each [seizure] each day, and 50 was a bad day when he was 4 years old," Lori says.
Now age 18, Brady can suffer up to 1,000 seizures a day.
"Sometimes it exhausts us, but we try to take the time to make sure we do whatever we can as family, and with Brady, to give him every opportunity to enjoy what he's got left of his life," Darrell says.
"A few times when he's been very close to dying, and his blood pressure would drop, we'd always whisper, ‘You don't have your Eagle yet.' And he would rally back," Lori says.
Recently, his neighborhood rallied with him, helping Brady finish his Eagle project by painting dozens of fire hydrants nearby. He and his father painted one near his home.
"Friday, a Scout council said, ‘OK, you can do his Eagle.' By Monday afternoon, we had 108 people here ready to work. I mean, it was amazing -- amazing how many people that just love him," Lori says.
"Knowing he put so much work into it, and this was one of his last goals that he set for himself, and to see it all come together was just absolutely beautiful," says Eric Redd, Brady's Scoutmaster.
"The night of the Eagle, he saw that Eagle's nest, he got that award on him and he took off. He made the guys move over and he sat down, and he just stayed there. That was where he wanted to be," Lori says.
So, Brady's childhood wish came true. Thanks to the love of his family and his community, the 18-year-old is flying high as an official Eagle Scout.
Because of Brady's special needs, the Boy Scouts of America approved some changes in his requirements that allowed him to earn enough badges to qualify. Brady is currently under hospice care.
E-mail: kaiken@ksl.com
