Local Boy Scout earns all possible merit badges

Braden Boyce has always been a bit of an over-achiever, between his musical prowess and list of achievements, he’s a humble fellow.

“It really just started off with my brother and my dad motivating me to do it,” said Braden Boyce, a local boy scout.

When Braden first joined boy scouts, he had a few goals in mind, now, the 18 year-old eagle scout has accomplished something almost unheard of for boy scouts: earning all 139 merit badges.

At just 12 years old, Braden became an eagle scout, something only about six percent of boy scouts achieve.

“First merit badge…I believe it was cycling,” said Boyce.

Behind all the decoration on the uniform, there’s a scout who just loves what he does, don’t be fooled, it wasn’t a straight path for him to get here, just ask his scout companion and dad.

“When he really realized he wanted to have that goal and I thought he’d forgotten it and I asked him what he wanted to do for the week and he said dad I gotta get working on merit badges again,” said David Boyce, Braden’s Dad.

Braden just celebrated his 18th birthday on august first.

For boy scouts, you can’t achieve anymore merit badges after that, with just one week before his birthday it was time to achieve his last merit badge- fly fishing.
“I probably spent 12 to 14 hours fishing before I finally got one,” said Boyce.

As for Braden’s dad, there was a bit of a deal on the table for him to achieve all merit badges.

“My part of the deal was we would read harry potter together, we started one time and quit on book five but we’re on book two now,” said Boyce.

Braden has his own advice for anyone looking to attain their goals.

“You just have to go for it and it’s going to be hard but it’s definitely worth it in the end and its going to be fun,” said Boyce.