Boy Scouts forever

They put up tents, help prepare campfire meals and earn merit badges. But Troop 154, based out of Eagan, is not your typical Boy Scout troop.

The most noticeable thing is that its members aren't "boys" at all, but grown men. Six-foot-tall Shawn Herron, 31, is the youngest, but even he has bits of gray in his hair, Elston Robinson, 52, is the oldest.

In Herron's case, it was a traumatic brain injury at birth that kept him from moving out of his parents' house and doing some of the things that 31-year-olds do. But through Boy Scouts, he's had some pretty high adventures: sleeping on a wide raft in the middle of a lake, cruising on a sailboat that almost sank and sleeping under a parachute strung between two trees with about a dozen other Scouts.

Most Boy Scouts only get a few summers at the sprawling Many Point Scout camp near Park Rapids, Minn. But Herron and his buddies in Troop 154 have been going since 1992.

As is the custom, he wears a patch on his uniform from the first time he attended: It's got a loon on it, and it's older than most of the other Scouts who attend the camp now.

"I can do it for a long time now," says Herron, looking down at his patch. "In 2023, I want to be a Scout leader."

Taimi Herron, Shawn's mother and scoutmaster, does some quick calculations in her head. "In 2023, which is 13 years from now, you'll be ... 44 years old," she says, glancing at her son. "Wow."

"How old will you be, Mrs. Herron?" asks Scout Sean Burton, 39.

"I'll be ... well, I'll be a lot older than that," she says.

Where traditional troops have more structured leadership with a regular rotation of boys in and out, troops like 154 are more like family affairs.

It's not unusual for the parents of developmentally delayed adults to bring their sons to camp as long as the parents live. Nor is it unusual for these troops to lose some Scouts along the way. Last September, Troop 154 lost Jeff Proulx, who had Down syndrome, to Alzheimer's disease at age 52.

"Jeff was my great buddy," says Herron.

"And what did Jeff like to do? He liked to hug everybody, didn't he?" Taimi Herron says, prompting her troop. "What did we call him?"

"Teddy Bear!" exclaims Aaron Hayes, a troop member nearing his 34th birthday.

As the Northern Star Council looks to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2010, troops like 154 and other disability-inclusion programs are a particular point of pride for the council.

A new book, "Honor Bright: A Century of Scouting in Northern Star Council," includes lengthy passages about the council's history of working with special needs Scouts.

At a recent council dinner, that work took center stage when a developmentally delayed adult Scout assisted with the Color Guard, and an Eagle Scout with Asperger's syndrome did the convocation.

The council's work includes making sure that all campsites and facilities are easy to use and that special-needs Scouts are always included in events such as the big StarCamp camporee planned for May, says Sara Amberg, the council's special-needs coordinator.

Parents such as Taimi Herron can "mainstream" their children in Cub Scout packs and then switch their kids into special-needs troops as they get older, or simply keep them in traditional troops all the way through. Because the Boy Scouts of America relaxed its membership-age requirements for special-needs members in the 1960s, men like Shawn Herron can keep participating well into middle and even old age, trying new adventures.

"This summer, at Many Point, I'm going to do the mile swim again," says Shawn Herron.

And his mom just smiles.

Alyssa Ford is a Minneapolis freelance writer.