![\"Oliver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/REG-L-MessnerBoyScout1697.jpg\")
Oliver Messner’s sash displays all of the merit badge offered by the Scouts. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a story \u2014 sometimes an adventure \u2014 behind each of Oliver Messner\u2019s Scouting merit badges. All 142 of them.<\/p>\n
A Schuylkill Valley High School senior, Messner has earned every merit badge offered by Scouts BSA, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, placing him in an exceptionally small group nationwide.<\/p>\n
Officially, only 644 people are known to have accomplished the feat, according to David Beougher, scoutmaster of Troop 430, sponsored by St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Spring Township. That figure reflects those who have registered with a national database; the actual number is likely higher, he said.<\/p>\n
Scouts BSA currently offers 141 merit badges. Messner earned 142, including one that has since been retired.<\/p>\n
To earn the rank of Eagle Scout \u2014 Scouting\u2019s highest honor \u2014 a Scout must complete 21 merit badges, including 14 from a set of more demanding core badges. Messner achieved the distinction in February after completing his Eagle project. By then, however, he was already well on his way to collecting far more than required.<\/p>\n
Messner, 18, said earning every badge was not the original goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main goal was just to get Eagle,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when I learned about merit badges, I was sort of intrigued that there were so many of them, and they all sounded cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scanning the sash that displays his badges, he rattled off a few favorites: horsemanship, movie-making, canoeing \u2014 even scuba diving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the privilege to swim in a quarry in 40-some-degree weather,\u201d he said. \u201cVery cold. But it was fun because we went down and saw wrecks. We were wreck diving.\u201d<\/p>\n
That experience led to a scuba certification and remains one of his most memorable badges. Others required travel, including a cycling trip along the historic Erie Canal towpath in western New York and wakeboarding at a water sports park to complete the water sports badge.<\/p>\n
His parents, Steve and Heidi of Greenfields, are active volunteers in his troop. His dad was his companion on most of his adventures.<\/p>\n
Some badges took him far beyond outdoor adventure.<\/p>\n
Oliver Messner’s sash displays all of the merit badge offered by the Scouts. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
For the law merit badge, one requirement was to observe the court system in action. Messner visited the Berks County Courthouse, where he sat through two cases before receiving an unexpected invitation from Judge Patrick T. Barrett.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe judge called me back to his chambers,\u201d Messner said. \u201cSo I actually had a personal visit in his office. It was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience left a strong impression, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how the justice system operates.<\/p>\n
One badge, however, proved far more demanding than expected.<\/p>\n
The hiking badge \u2014 designed to test endurance, planning and navigation \u2014 turned into a grueling lesson in map reading during a backpacking trip on the Old Loggers Path in World\u2019s End State Park, Sullivan County.<\/p>\n
Messner set out with his dad on a five-day, 20-mile loop. They underestimated the terrain, however, after misreading elevation changes represented by contour lines on the map.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw it only had about 400 feet, but I didn\u2019t realize it was up, down, up, down \u2014 all packed together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
By the second day, they had run out of food and water and were not even halfway through the trail. After consulting their maps, they found a gravel shortcut that led to a road and back to their vehicle, where they resupplied and shortened the trek to three days and 15 miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely one of the harder ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Not all merit badges involved outdoor challenges.<\/p>\n
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Messner earned the invention badge through a virtual program. Scouts were asked to develop an idea that could help others, and Messner came up with a golf accessory designed to eliminate bending over to place or retrieve a ball and tee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a tube with a handle,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it actually worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some badges, however, were memorable for less inspiring reasons.<\/p>\n
Personal management, also completed during the pandemic, required long virtual sessions on personal finance, goal-setting and other aspects, with little relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like three sessions of four hours, no breaks,\u201d Messner said.<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges \u2014 physical, mental and logistical \u2014 Messner said each badge offered something valuable, whether a new skill, a new experience or simply a story to tell.<\/p>\n
The closer he got to earning all of the badges, the more he wanted to join the exclusive group of Scouts who had achieved that milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo become a part of the 600-and-some known people who have accomplished all the merit badges of their time, I\u2019m pretty proud of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a story \u2014 sometimes an adventure \u2014 behind each of Oliver Messner\u2019s Scouting merit badges. All 142…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-102815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-reading-city","13":"tag-reading-city-headlines","14":"tag-reading-city-news","15":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}