Adults who shake their heads and say “kids these days” haven’t met Remy Buxton, Scout Troop 93’s newest Eagle Scout. He’s a young man of few words but “kind and humble,” according to the troop’s Scoutmaster Helena Hollauer – and quite well rounded.

Remy Buxton of Falmouth is Troop 93’s most recent Eagle Scout. Contributed / Remy Buxton

When Buxton, 18, isn’t doing activities with his troop, you can find him playing with his rock band, Bards and the Basilisk. This coming fall, he’ll be enrolled in Southern Maine Community College’s precision machining and manufacturing associate degree program where he hopes to take welding courses, an interest he picked up in Scouts.

Buxton joined Cub Scouts in first grade and in sixth grade crossed over into Boy Scouts. He’s stuck with it all these years because his parents have been involved with the troop – his dad has gone on multiple hiking trips – and he’s made lots of friends along the way.

His troop, which was founded in 1977, according to Hollauer, has about 26 Scouts. Nationally, about 4% of Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, according to the organization.

Buxton told The Forecaster that the value of being a Scout is that you “learn a lot of skills that will help you greatly in your adult life, after you move on from school and living with your parents.”

“(You) learn a lot about being independent, and that’s a really good thing,” he said.

But fewer and fewer young people are choosing to be Scouts. According to the organization’s annual report from 2023, there were 392,275 Scouts ages 11-17 (boys and girls) that year, compared to 798,516 Scouts in 2019. That was the first year that the flagship Boy Scouts program, which was renamed Scouts BSA, allowed girls to participate. Boy Scouts of America will be called Scouting America come February 2025, according to an announcement in May, following years of turmoil in the organization related to sexual abuse and bankruptcy.

Buxton, for his part, thinks that the decline has to do with the increasing role of technology in young people’s lives. “People just aren’t as interested anymore in doing outdoorsy (activities), like camping and hiking,” he said. “Everyone who is in Scouts, we have a shared enjoyment of the outdoors … so we get along easily,” he added.

In early August, Buxton passed his board of review – a sort of panel interview that serves as the final hurdle to achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, which Hollauer said involves a lot of preparation. The members of the board of review included people he didn’t know and others he did know from the Scouting world, including Hollauer.

“I was a little nervous, but then once I got into it, I kind of eased into it. It wasn’t that bad,” he said.

During the review, Buxton had to talk about a project he completed in order to become an Eagle Scout, give an overview of his Scouting career and talk about himself as a person.

For his project, he constructed an archway for his church, the Falmouth Congregational Church, which is also the sponsor of the troop. The archway is at the back of the church and stands about 13 feet tall and was part of the church’s ongoing “beautification process.” He also welded a design into the top of it.

During the review he said he talked about his interest in welding and that he’s very “big into music.” He and his bandmates are working on original material for an album. He describes their music as a meld of genres like progressive rock, psychedelic rock and metal.

Toward the end of her interview with The Forecaster, Hollauer asked if Buxton had mentioned that he had obtained a very rare award in the troop – being a part of the Extreme Patrol – for showing his grit and resolve through hiking and sleeping outside, particularly during cold weather a certain number of times.

The reporter told her he had not. “Remy!” she cried with amused exasperation at the Scout’s modesty.