ELKHART COUNTY — Earning your Eagle Scout Rank as a Boy Scout is very prestigious, and rarely do most boys achieve that status. Just last week, an Elkhart teen did something even rarer, earning all of his Merit Badges and then some.

Nathan Hite is one of about 250 boys in the entire organization of millions to ever earn all of the Merit Badges. They can be earned after completing a variety of life skill tasks like scuba diving to things like journalism.

Hite is a member of the New Paris Boy Scouts Troop 12.

What really makes Hite’s story unique is the fact that he earned 143 badges. To put that into perspective for you, to earn your Eagle Scout Rank, the highest rank, you only need 21 to achieve it.

“At first I wasn’t really thinking about getting all of the Merit badges,” Hite said. “Once I got my Eagle I’m like, maybe I should go for all of them and I had this goal, I set the goal and I completed the goal. It was a lot of fun.”

Hite just squeezed in his final badge on May 3, the day before his 18th birthday, which is the cutoff for the scouts. His final badge was the Digital Technology badge.

“It’s a stress reliever,” he said. “It’s just nice to actually have a little bit of time to realize what I have accomplished.”

Hite said his favorite badge to earn was the Aviation badge.

“We actually got to fly on an airplane and we did it out of Goshen Airport and it was a lot of fun,” he said.

The toughest to earn, was the Backpacking badge.

“We had to backpack almost 50 to 60 miles, not in one trip, we had to do several trips,” he said. “On one of the backpacking trails a dog came out of no where and bit me so that was definitely a life experience and now I have pepper spray wherever I go whenever I hike.”

Hite said the life skills and friendships he has made in the scouts have shaped his future.

“I’ve learned life skills to know that I can start a family and know the things to take care of my family or myself in the future,” he said.

Hite is truly special. He became an Eagle Scout by the time he was 13, which most don’t achieve that until right before they turn 18.

His troop only offers 138 badges. The troop brought back five retired badges in 2010, and by earning those that is how he hit 143 badges.

Hite is homeschooled, but will be finished with high school soon. Hite hopes to take a year off to cross things off of his bucket list and save money. Eventually he wants to go to Purdue University to study computer science.

Source: WNDU