Eagle Mom & Chief Judge Loretta Preska shared her thoughts on being an Eagle Scout Mom to NYC Eagle Scout Moms at the 2014 NYC Eagle Scout Mom "Thank you" Reception, April 17, 2014, at the offices of Warburg Pincus in midtown Manhattan. Judge Preska was introduced by National Eagle Scout Association Chair and Greter New York Councils Vice President Ricky Mason

1. Good evening ladies and thank you for joining us this evening.
It is a great treat for me to be here tonight in the company of so many Eagle
Moms. We
share a very special common experience of watching our sons develop through
Scouting into
mature, moral, compassionate citizens. We are all so proud of you and your sons.
But despite
the great crowd in this room tonight, our sons’ experiences are all too rare.
There are
innumerable boys on our blocks, in our neighborhoods and across town who are
desperately in
need of the guidance that Scouting provides. I know, I sentence them every day.
And so, as we
celebrate tonight, I will ask you, the backbone of Scouting, to join me in
helping Scouting to
change those lives.
We all know that Scouting made a life-changing difference in our Eagle Scout
sons.
Each of us here tonight sent an awkward, uncertain, probably timid son into the
world of
Scouting. We watched his knowledge grow, badge by badge. That knowledge often
extended to
the exotic, like the knowledge gained earning the Atomic Energy badge. We
watched his
independence grow, trip by trip ’ camping, skiing, sailing. We watched his
leadership skills
grow, step by step ’ Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, Eagle.
We even watched our son Matt’s business acumen grow. His troop raised funds by
selling Christmas trees on three Manhattan street corners on three weekends
every December. It
was a massive operation. Freshly cut trees had to be ordered, trucks rented, and
parents signed
up to drive to Pennsylvania to pick up trees, bring them back to New York,
deliver them to the
sites each weekend day and retrieve them at the end of the selling day. Shifts
of Scouts and
parents had to be organized, and younger siblings were often pressed into
service to sweep the
sites clean of tree needles. Appropriate delivery teams of one older and one
younger Scout had
to be dispatched, and the money accounted for at the end of each day. I had a
small hint of the

2. learning taking place when I saw Matt poring over the shift schedule and
lamenting that some of
his peers ’just don’t always show up when they are supposed to.’
Sometimes the process of transformation made us laugh. Like the time our son’s
troop
visited a troop in Pennsylvania where they earned the aviation badge at a nearby
airfield. Matt
thought it would be fun to start the plane’s engines and he did just that ’ much
to the horror of
the adults present. Well, that laugh is mostly in hindsight.
Sometimes the process made us cry -- like the time Matt was teaching Scoutcraft
at Ten
Mile River. In what became his college application essay, he explained how he
taught a blind,
almost deaf scout to build a fire. The young Scout was understandably terrified
of the thought of
putting a match to tinder and kindling to ignite flames he could not see. Matt’s
description of the
look of joy and accomplishment that spread across that young scout’s face as he
safely felt the
warmth of his little flame makes me cry to this day.
Sometimes we were amazed they even survived. When our Matt was 14 his troop
headed
to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I confess only now that upon hearing
that our
skinny son was headed out on the trail at an altitude of ___, carrying a weeks’
worth of food and
equipment on his back gave me great pause. When I heard that the temperatures
ranged from the
30s to the 100s, I was certain he would never return. But return he did, with a
new self-
confidence. In preparing for tonight, I asked Matt his thoughts about his
Philmont time. He
said:
Philmont is an experience like no other. It teaches perseverance, strength, and
teamwork. It
fosters an appreciation of nature, but it also instills a sense of belonging, of
being part of an
objective that is larger than oneself. Successful completion of a Philmont trek
requires
collaborating as a team, utilizing the strengths of each member of the crew.
After completing the
journey, one has a greater respect and appreciation for his fellow crew members
and of the
natural beauty of the New Mexico back-country.

3. Matt’s feeling of confidence following Philmont was one I could identify with
from my
own days as a Girl Scout. As a high school sophomore, I headed out with my
patrol for a four-
day trek in the high Adirondacks. Despite my lack of camping experience, I was
somehow
elected patrol leader. The first day went fine, and we camped at the appointed
site, sleeping in
an open shelter. On the second day, however, for some reason we couldn’t locate
that night’s
shelter. We hiked and hiked and hiked some more but never found it. To make
matters perfect,
it had begun to snow, then rain, but we made do, sleeping under a tarp and
eating foods that
didn’t need cooking. The next morning dawned sunny, and in two hours we arrived
at that
night’s shelter. So we celebrated by cooking and eating food intended for the
night before.
After that, I still remember thinking that there was nothing in the world I
couldn’t do.
Ricky told you that I’m the Chief Judge of the Federal Court here in New York.
Without
Girl Scouting, I would never be in this position. Unlike most high school
students, I knew
exactly what I wanted to be. I was going to be a chemist. After doing chemistry
research during
the summer before senior year of college, though, I rejected life in the
laboratory. What to do?
Well the only thing I liked to do, as you have gathered by now, is talk. I had
been on several
Girl Scout trips that required me to talk; one by train to the Girl Scout
Roundup in Idaho in 1964
where I sent radio broadcasts back to my community and one to an international
conference in
Hawaii in 1966, about which I gave speeches for years. Because of those
experiences, I was
selected as community ambassador to go to Denmark for a summer and for the next
year to
speak to any interested community group. I enjoyed the speaking as much as the
trip. So as a
college senior contemplating my life’s work, speaking was the key. I had heard
tell that one
could make a living speaking by being a lawyer, although I wasn’t so sure what
lawyers did.

4. Undaunted by such details, I applied to Fordham Law School in the spring of my
senior year,
and all I can report is so far, so good.
But our own sons were raised at a different time and in a different place.
Somehow, by
living the Scout Oath, our Eagle sons were able to resist the temptations that
surrounded them
and to emerge from the perils of modern youth as moral men, with lifetime
friendships, life
lessons, and the ability to lead their fellow citizens. How proud we are!
Scouting has
immeasurably improved the lives of our sons and our families.
I’m proud to say that the values Scouting has instilled in our son have caused
him to
begin paying back. Matt’s friend, Andrew Nam, [position] at the Council, is now
Scout Master
at their old troop, and Matt attends as many meetings as possible to help out.
He helps work
Christmas tree sales in December and accompanies the troop on its annual ski
trip. These two
men are wonderful role models for those young Scouts.
But there are more sons and more families out there in our communities. There is
much
more work to be done and not enough people to do it. Ethan Draddy and the folks
at the Greater
New York Councils are working hard but by themselves cannot reach anything close
to the
number of boys and families in need. Thus, I ask each one of you to consider
joining me in
lending your expertise as an Eagle Mom to other boys. Just think how the lives
of those boys
and their families can be bettered. Just think of the effect the work of this
great wave of Eagle
Moms can have on the fabric of our communities. I hope you will consider
volunteering to help
the Council further its work with boys just like our own sons. [Method of
signing up.]
Meanwhile, I congratulate each of you on your son’s great success and I look
forward to
continuing to celebrate all of you Eagle Moms tonight. Thank you for attending.