Eagle Scout

Arnold Mears credits the Boy Scouts of America with rescuing him from an abusive home life and giving him the skills and confidence to become an effective communicator. He put those skills to use last week when he was part of a sit-down meeting with President Barack Obama. "I had no knowledge of the great things the program has to offer," said Mears, 19, a graduate of Perry Hall High School who plans to attend Coppin State University in the fall. Mears was one of the hundreds of Boy Scouts who gathered at the Inner Harbor's Rash Field Saturday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the organization.

Great Minds Think Alike, So Who Thinks Like You? When I was introduced to Scouting, I was - probably like every other kid - very unaware of how this would soon come to be the steppingstone I needed to make the transformation from boy to man. I was raised in a rough part of Baltimore's east side. My dad was not around much because he was in the Navy, and we lost my mom when I was only 4 or 5. A car from social services came to pick my siblings and me up after my mom died and take us down to the Social Security offices.

Christina L. Fitch, a homemaker who was active in Boy Scouting, died Friday of pancreatic cancer at her Parkville home. She was 47. Christina Lee Boles was born in Baltimore and raised in Lansdowne. She was a 1979 graduate of Lansdowne High School. In 1979, she married David W. Fitch Sr., who owns a vending machine company, and settled in Parkville where she raised her three sons. "Her primary interest and hobby was raising her children. She was completely devoted to them, and working with the Scouts," said her brother, Carl Randolph, an actor, who lives in Laurel.

Word of the triplet Eagle Scouts has been percolating through the community for a couple of months now - three brothers, born within minutes of each other 18 years ago this spring, who will achieve the highest rank attainable in the Boys Scouts of America. These things don't happen every day - in fact, it appears to have happened only once in nearly 100 years of Scouting - so attention must be paid. It's finally official, which means we get to tell you about the Podhorniak boys today, and we could not have a more perfect moment for the story - Mother's Day 2008.

Like other high school athletes, River Hill's Craig Morgan joined the cross country team as a freshman to help him stay in shape for his top sport, lacrosse. But after enjoying the challenges and improving vastly during his freshman cross country season, running has taken center stage for Morgan. The junior just completed his third season of indoor track at Monday's Class 2A state championships, winning the 1,600 meters run in 4:28.33 and also taking third in the 3,200. After two seasons playing lacrosse on junior varsity, he plans to run in outdoor track this spring.

A 15-year-old Dulaney High School honor student and Boy Scout was charged yesterday with shooting and killing his parents and two younger brothers, a crime that police said he confessed to more than 24 hours after the killings - time he allegedly spent hanging out with friends. Nicholas W. Browning was arrested about 1 a.m. yesterday and charged with four counts of first-degree murder, according to Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey. The teenager, a sophomore who was close to achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, used a gun owned by his father, John W. Browning, 45, in the shootings Friday night, according to Toohey.

A standing room crowd of nearly 1,000 filled Bel Air Church of the Nazarene to pay homage to former Sen. J. Robert Hooper, with mourners lining the aisles and spilling out into the foyer. "My father would say, `Don't you all have something more important to do today?'" said Terrie Fraer, as she began a tribute to her father. The comment caused a ripple of gentle laughter during Tuesday's service. The 71-year-old Hooper, a three-term senator who resigned his seat Dec. 31, died of cancer Jan. 24. Among the congregated were state and county officials, volunteer firefighters, church leaders and dozens of uniformed Boy Scouts, many of them wearing Eagle Scout Badges that Hooper had awarded in what he said was one of his favorite official duties.

Tim Mantegna dreamed of making Eagle Scout for more than a decade. So when the time came to pick a topic for the culmination of the program - the leadership project - the 17-year-old Fallston resident wanted to do something people would remember. The parameters for making his selection were simple: The project had to be something that no one in his troop had done, make a lasting impact and involve history. "I'm a history buff ... ," Mantegna said. "Most of the time Scouts do landscaping or build outdoor classes, clear paths or plant trees.