Newest Eagle Scout Thomas Dailey
Thomas Dailey of Scouts BSA Troop 7 was awarded the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank, Eagle Scout, on Monday, November 30. Dailey’s Eagle Court of Honor was held at St. Vincent Martyr Church in Madison and was live streamed so that Troop members, family, and friends could attend the event.
Dailey began his scouting adventure in the 1st grade in Cub Scout Pack 7 at St. Vincent Martyr parish. During his years as a scout, Dailey has hiked, biked, backpacked, and paddled over a thousand miles on trails and rivers in eight states, and he has visited national landmarks with Troop 7 in Washington, D.C., Arlington, New York, Boston, Plymouth, Gettysburg, and Acadia National Park. In 2016, Dailey was inducted into the Order of the Arrow, scouting’s honor society, and he also completed National Youth Leadership Training later that same year. Working with his family, parish, and diocese, Dailey earned the Light of Christ and Parvuli Dei religious emblems, and he received the Ad Altare Dei award from Bishop Serratelli in 2017.
Dailey has held many leadership positions in Troop 7, including two terms as patrol leader and one term as the troop’s Senior Patrol Leader, and he has dedicated hundreds of hours of service to the Madison community as an individual scout and alongside his troop. For his Eagle Project, Dailey assisted the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project in building its collection of personal narrative accounts from American veterans. “The project involved collecting letters and photos and recording interviews with veterans, and then submitting those records to the Library of Congress for preservation,” Dailey explained. “I’m grateful to the eight veterans who shared their experiences, the Gold Star family that contributed many original letters and photos, and to all the volunteers who helped to assemble, record, and catalog the materials.”
Dailey is a senior at Madison High School where he is in a share time program with the County College of Morris for Cybersecurity and Information Protection. He is also a three-season athlete, running and swimming for MHS’s varsity Cross Country, Track and Field, and Swim Teams, and he was a Harvard Model Congress delegate for MHS in 2018, 2019, and 2020. This past summer, Dailey completed an internship in cybersecurity at Nokia/Bell Labs, and he hopes to attend a U.S. Service Academy after graduation.
Thomas Dailey is the 68th Troop 7 scout to earn the rank of Eagle since the troop was re-chartered in 1959. Troop 7 is chartered by St. Vincent Martyr Catholic Church in Madison. Information about Troop 7 is available online at troopwebhost.org/Troop7Madison, and young men ages 11-18 are welcome to observe a meeting or join at any time.
