The perseverance, the willingness to lead others and perform extensive duty, eventually will pay off for one Auburn teenager.
Brendan Bruno is about to achieve Boy Scouts’ highest honor, the rank of Eagle Scout.
“You’ve just got to stick through it. I mean, you meet a lot of nice people. It’s just a good experience,” said the 17-year-old Bruno, a member of Kent-based Troop 474 of the Chief Seattle Council since 2004. Bruno crossed over from Cub Scouts, where he earned its highest honor – the Arrow of Light Award for the WEBELO rank. “The experience has made me a better person.
“(Scouting) has helped me know how to be a good person, to do the right things,” he added. “It has helped me execute leadership.”
Bruno, son of Gary and Julie Bruno, recently completed his Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project, which involved removing noxious English ivy from an area within Dash Point State Park in Federal Way.
Bruno, a junior at Auburn Riverside High School and a Running Start honors student at Green River Community College, anticipates completing all the requirements and earning his Eagle Scout rank by March. He is planning a Court of Honor ceremony with his troop in June, the 100th year of Scouting in America.
About 4 percent of all Scouts achieve the rank.
“I’m very proud of him,” said his father Gary Bruno, a technical writer for The Boeing Co., who has been involved in various Scouting capacities as a parent. “I give him a lot of credit for being persistent.”
The project was daunting – a push to eradicate English ivy from a 5,000-square-foot area on the north side of the state park. The project involved two field sessions in November and December conducted in cooperation with the state parks system at Dash Point. Bruno led 58 volunteers, devoting 258 combined man hours to remove the invasive, non-native ivy.
“It was a lot of hard work, but they did a nice job,” said Kent Brooten, Scoutmaster and Troop 474’s leader for 33 years. “I make the boys plan in great detail before I approve it, and Brendan did very well preparing for it. It was a huge, physical (project) but they performed well.”
Bruno is a well-rounded, good-natured boy, receiving honors and awards in school and Scouting. He is a member of the National Honor Society as well as the community college Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
A two-year varsity letterman on the Auburn Riverside swimming and diving team, Bruno has set personal bests in three events this season – the 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
He earned the BSA Merit Badge for swimming, and his BSA Life rank in 2008.
Bruno also is an accomplished pianist, who enjoys all types of music, including the classic Beatles.
Under the tutelage of Tia Monsen, Bruno has been an award-winning performer, having played publicly for several years.
In Scouting, he received numerous honors and completed rigorous 50-mile backcountry hikes in the state and elsewhere.
Bruno will follows his brother, Chris, as an Eagle Scout. Chris Bruno earned the honor from Troop 474 in 2005 and recently graduated from the University of Washington with dual degrees in mathematics and philosophy.
“I wanted to do it for myself, really,” Brendan Bruno said. “But also if (Chris) has got it, I’ve got to do it, too.”
Brendan Bruno hopes to study architecture and graphic design at UW. Perhaps one day he might lead his own architectural firm.
“Brendan is very driven and focused, but he’s quiet and self-assured,” Brooten said. “He’s confident he’s going to get the job done, and that’s important.
“He’s just a good, young man.”
