Boy Scout Earns All 122 Merit Badges!

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Chevy Chase resident James Calderwood can play a bugle, cycle 50 miles and do home repairs. He can fish, shoot and hike. He knows about citizenship, crime prevention and stamp collecting. And he has the badges to prove it.

The 18-year-old jack-of-all-trades owes his knowledge on a vast variety of subjects to his Boy Scout merit badges.

Calderwood, a senior at Georgetown Preparatory School, has earned every badge that Scouting offers — 122 in all.

"I’m not an expert at anything, but I know something about all of these different subjects," he said.

Calderwood said earning all of the badges was never his goal. Instead, it was his curiosity and fascination with constantly learning new things that drove him to explore the different subjects.

"I never really planned on earning all of them," he said. "Before I knew it, I had 100 badges. I just found the merit badges were a really great way to pursue my vast interests."

A member of Troop 52, based at All Saints Church in Chevy Chase, Calderwood has been a Scout since first grade. He is an Eagle Scout, the highest level of Scouting, which requires 21 badges.

Craig Iscoe has been Calderwood’s scoutmaster since he was a Boy Scout, but knew him even before that as a Cub Scout.

"He has always been exceptionally well organized and focused," Iscoe said.

The troop focuses more on developing leadership skills and learning than on advancing ranks and earning badges, Iscoe said, so he was a bit skeptical of Calderwood’s drive to earn badges. But after seeing how hard Calderwood worked to earn the badges and how enthusiastic and diligent he was about it, Iscoe said he was convinced.

"He wants to excel," Iscoe said. "He wants to learn, he wants to master a new area and so he does it. It’s indicative of how he approaches everything he does."

Although the Boy Scouts of America does not keep records on how many people earn all of the merit badges, it is fairly rare, said Brandi Mantz, associate director for marketing and communications at the national office of the Boy Scouts of America.

"It’s quite an achievement," she said. "It’s a major accomplishment for a youth to do that."

The merit badge program is meant to expose youth to a variety of different areas, teach them about overcoming obstacles to reach goals and to help them gain self confidence, Mantz said.

"A lot of boys find something that they really love and that becomes their career," she said.

Calderwood started earning merit badges as a Boy Scout in sixth grade. His first was in first aid. His last, earned just over a month ago, was bugling — an accomplishment he said was one of the most challenging.

"I’ve never been very musical," he said. "It was the last badge that I had to earn. I felt like I had to go for it."

He found a trumpet and a teacher and set about practicing for about six months.

"I traveled in Africa last summer and I climbed Kilimanjaro," he said. "I brought the mouthpiece with me to practice."

While the requirements and subjects for each badge vary, none are useless, Calderwood said.

"I learned a ton working on each badge," he said. "Once you get done, you’re like, ‘I’m so glad I did that because I know so much more now that I did this.’ There are a lot of skills that are accumulated that you can use every day."

For example, the knowledge he gained working for his fire safety badge came in handy during a trip, when a cabin near where he was staying caught on fire.

"I never really expected to be faced with a fire," he said.

But he and his friends were able to put the fire out before firefighters ever arrived, he said.

Some of his favorite badges are in public health and medicine, said Calderwood, who hopes to have a career in medicine in developing countries. He said he is also passionate about photography and shotgun shooting, each of which earned him badges.

But the best part of earning all of the badges, he said, is gaining the confidence and the knowledge to talk to virtually anyone about anything, he said.

To earn badges, Scouts must be grilled in the subject by badge counselors, who are basically experts on the topic.

"The most rewarding part of all these badges is being interviewed," Calderwood said. "Sitting down with a professional and talking with people has made me a lot more comfortable."

The skill has made his college interview process — he is applying to 14 different schools — go more smoothly, he said.

Gaining the badges also expanded his horizons and introduced him to subjects, fields and hobbies that me might have never look into before.

"I really enjoy pursuing new subjects and getting a taste of what different things have to offer," he said. "It gave me a great starting point to find something I have a passion in."