Carlson Park residents Patti and Tony Bravo, stalwarts of Culver City’s blossoming Scouting movement, are stepping down from their key leadership positions after 16 years of positively shaping the lives of countless Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts throughout the city and across the Westside.
Neither of the Bravos was available for comment at The Observer’s press deadline. But “it has been a good run,” Patti Bravo wrote to members of Culver’s Troop 113 and their parents in an email to confirm their planned retirement from Scouting.
“We've traveled with the troop, camped, hiked, cooked and shared so many wonderful memories,” Patti Bravo wrote.
Tony Bravo, Troop 113’s Assistant Scoutmaster and a prominent home-improvement contractor, has said that he’s particularly proud of the large number of Culver kids who joined the local Cub Scouts as early as seven years old and then stayed in Scouting long enough to earn their vaunted Eagle status in Troop 113 more than a decade later.
The Eagle ranking is the highest honor the Boy Scouts of America bestows. To earn it, a Scout must earn at least 21 merit badges, provide numerous hours of service to their community, and demonstrate leadership to their peers and troop leaders.
Perhaps the toughest requirement, though, is to organize and manage a large, service-oriented project that involves fellow Scouts and other volunteers. Merely planning the event can easily take more than 100 hours, and executing it can take many more.
Less than two percent of the millions of young people who join Scouting across the U.S. each year eventually reach Eagle status. But the percentage in Culver City is much higher, a spokesman for the Texas-based BSA confirmed.
Two of the Bravos’ three sons are Eagles and the third is a Life Scout, the second-highest ranking.
“I like to joke that we have so many Eagle Scouts in Culver City because there must be something in our local water,” said Richard Marcus, a former Culver mayor and councilman who now helps to oversee Scouting activities throughout much of both Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
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