WINONA LAKE – Winona Lake resident Jean-Luc Baldwin is one of two people in Rwanda, Africa, to receive the highest rank in Scouting. He and his friend, Tucker Koonce, Arkansas, became Rwanda’s first two Eagle Scouts ever in the country to obtain the rank that is the highest level of achievement for the Boy Scouts of America. Baldwin, then 16, and Koonce received the rank May 13. Requirements include earning at least 21 merit badges and demonstrating Scout spirit through the Boy Scout oath and law, service and leadership. Baldwin also was required to complete an extensive service project that he planned, organized, led and managed. The Eagle Scout Service Project is the opportunity for a Scout to demonstrate leadership and delegate tasks. Baldwin’s parents, Chuck and Debby Baldwin, are missionaries in Kilgali, Rwanda, where Baldwin was a member of Boy Scout Troop 490. He and his parents returned to Winona Lake in May after living in Rwanda since January 2009. They previously lived in Winona Lake from 2003 to the end of 2008. Baldwin, now 17, has been a member of the Scouting troop in Rwanda since October 2010, and he worked for the past two years to receive the Eagle Scout rank. Baldwin will be a senior this fall at Warsaw Community High School. Over a span of two years, Baldwin obtained 21 merit badges. One of the badges he received was a physical fitness badge where we was required to be on a workout plan for 13 weeks. He said the least challenging merit badge was finger printing, where he was required to research the different types of finger prints and how to fingerprint. Baldwin said he enjoyed receiving the cinematography merit badge the most when he made a movie called “Ghost Wars.” For Baldwin’s Eagle Scout project, he put together a Taekwondo teaching manual in Korean to teach viewers moves to advance from a white belt to a black belt. Baldwin earned his blackbelt in Taekwondo in May and wanted to help the Taekwondo Federation in Rwanda by completing his Eagle Scout project. He also filmed all the moves of Taekwondo to make a video, which matches the booklet. There were Koreans from the Taekwondo Peace Corps Foundation who demonstrated movements for the film. More than 190 individual videos were shot to make the final product. He asked help from 13 volunteers (Korean, Rwandan and fellow Boy Scouts). It took more than 150 man hours to complete the video. Baldwin’s Scout master is the coach for the national Taekwondo team in Rwanda and encouraged him to consider completing the Taekwondo project. “I started in Scouts with the goal of getting my Eagle Scout rank because I knew it would help me with character references for a job,” Baldwin said. He said he hopes to be a video game designer or programmer. He said obtaining the Eagle Scout rank is the most long-term thing he has worked to achieve. Debby Baldwin said she is proud of her son. “I think my son did something most kids wouldn’t do, and it gets down to a lot of research and checking off a list of things you have to do after the fun is done,” she said.
