A Quaker Valley High School senior has 138 reasons to celebrate.
Liam Welge, 18, recently “aged out” from his Boy Scout experience with Scouting America, but not before earning every scouting merit badge possible.
“It rarely happens,” said Welge. “I did it because it gives you a little bit of experience on a lot of things. A lot of people don’t understand the significance of it and the amount of work that you have to put into it.”
Since 1911, less than 1 percent of Scouts, or 500 out of 113 million Scouts, have individually earned all of their badges.
Welge began his badge endeavor in the third grade and it took him eight years to achieve the impressive milestone.
His scouting sash is currently out-of-town with his aunt, who’s in the process of attaching his final badge earned: the bugle-themed badge.
Merit badge categories are wide-ranging and include wilderness survival, movie making, journalism, gardening, Indian lore, engineering, horsemanship, medicine, space exploration, welding, archery, cooking, dentistry, energy, family life, fishing, insect study, rifle shooting, reptile and amphibian study, pottery, law and fire safety.
A quirky badge on fingerprinting seemed a bit odd to Liam, but was easy to complete.
“That was kinda weird but the most challenging Badge was bugling,” Welge said. “I had an actual bugle and learned to play it.”
Welge remains rather modest about his elite accomplishment, but did highlight how the scouting life afforded him friends, leadership and numerous, memorable adventures.
“I celebrated with family members when I was done. It really helped me with leadership. Scouting took me to many different places such as Korea, New Mexico and the Bahamas,” he said.
Welge became an Eagle Scout at 14.
It takes 21 badges to be an Eagle Scout.
But he didn’t stop there.
“I’m proud of him for reaching his goal of earning 138 Boy Scout Merit Badges,” his mother, Jodie Welge, said. “Many memories were made and it brought us closer together as a family.”
Liam credited his mother and father, Bill Welge, for supporting his Scouting pursuits.
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“They were heavily involved and I owe a lot of appreciation to my mom and dad,” he said.
“Liam has determination and had the longevity to stick with it. It’s a rare quality to find a man who commits,” said Oliver Wiehe, former Scout master of Troop 243 based in the Sewickley Presbyterian Church in Sewickley. “It’s tied in with him accomplishing all the merit badges. He really liked aviation and we need pilots. He is the first from our troop to accomplish this goal.”
Liam has no siblings, but has a 100-plus flock of chickens, ducks, turkeys and guinea fowl and formerly owned and operated Liam’s Great Eggs, a local egg delivery business he began when he was 4.
The family lives on acreage in Sewickley Heights and he’s since scaled down his flock to 10 birds.
Badges lead to new beginnings
All merit badges must be completed by the time a Scout turns 18.
Getting his scuba diving certification involved classes, taking a certification test and scuba diving in a quarry.
Welge said all of his hard work allowed him to achieve a personal goal of learning about hundreds of areas.
For Welge, earning his aviation badge has led him to setting serious professional goals of becoming a commercial airline pilot.
“Aviation was by far the most interesting for me,” Welge said. “That’s what I want to be my career.”
His favorite time is spent above ground, whether operating a flying engine-less glider plane or logging airplane flight hours.
“The aviation badge really made that possible,” said Welge of his love of flying.
His first solo airplane flight was at age 15.
“I was flying a plane by myself before I was driving,” Welge said. “Flying feels free. You just feel different and you have a sense of freedom. A sense of peace.”
He’s currently planning a cross country flight, weather permitting.
“Liam had a great aptitude towards flying,” said Jodie Welge.
He began flying drones and RC model aircraft from a young age.
After earning his aviation badge, which included flying a WWII L-4 Grasshopper, Welge became a glider pilot with Pittsburgh Soaring Association.
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At Quaker Valley High School, Welge became the first Quaker Valley High School student to enroll in a dual aviation-professional pilot program at Community College of Beaver County — earning 40 college credits to date.
Welge academic accomplishments include membership in the National Honor Society and completing 100 community service hours.
A hockey player since the age of 4, Welge is on the QVHS varsity hockey team, is a member of the Best Buddies Club, French Club, Experimental Learning and maintains a 3.96 GPA.
He is undecided on his post-graduation college decisions but said aviation will be the focus.
He currently flies with Ravotti Air based in Zelienople and has logged 40 hours flight time towards his private pilot license.
“I miss it. It was a major part of my life but I just need to step this next step forward to aviation. It’s almost a relief (earning all the badges) because I have more time. It was a lot of work,” Welge said.