Father’s Day: Boy Scout Gives Impromptu Nod to ‘Best Dad’ Ever

Brandon Buchanan knows why he’s a Boy Scout, first and foremost: “Pretty much because my dad was a scout,” the 12-year-old Buchanan said. “I love it, because of my dad.”

At the 2011 Soaring Eagle ceremony at HCC at The Regent on June 16, at which for their roles in helping to build community, Buchanan gave his five reasons for loving the man who gave him a sense of place in his own life.

In turn, Christopher Buchanan gave his five reasons for best loving his role as dad — the impending Father’s Day being the occasion that the question was asked in the first place.

“Where do I start?” Christopher Buchanan said. “It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

The worldwide holiday to honor dads originated in the United States in 1910 and is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. It became an official national holiday in 1972, about 40 years before Christopher Buchanan first became a dad.

Today, he is the father of two boys — Brandon, a member of Troop 101, which meets at Kings Avenue Baptist Church in Brandon, for which the elder Buchanan serves as assistant Scout master, and his younger brother, Nathan, 9, a Webelo Cub Scout in Troop 690, which meets at Brooker Elementary School.

The best things about “the greatest thing” Christopher Buchanan’s ever done?

• “Being able to carry on a conversation with them, and have them speak their mind and you say, ‘Wow, where did you come up with that?’ ” he said.
• Getting “to see things from the other side.” Buchanan said that while he gets to see his sons go through the experience, he gets to reflect on his own boyhood days from an adult perspective.
• Having a friend. “I’m their parent first, but still, I’m their friend,” Buchanan said. “They’re somebody I can go out with and do something and enjoy it.”
• “Having someone else to share the experience of camping and fishing with, who wants to learn about those things.”

As for Brandon Buchanan, who was welcoming guests into The Regent at the June 16 event, it didn’t take him long to come up with his “five best reasons" for loving his dad:

• “He’s a computer nerd.”
• “He’s a science fiction nerd, like me.”
• “He was a security officer for the Hillsborough County School District, and that’s pretty cool.”
• “He knows a lot about history, which is pretty cool.”
• “He was an Eagle Scout, which is something I want to be.”

Christopher Buchanan remembers well the community service project that helped him nab the highest ranking honor you can get as a Boy Scout.

“I made the marquees for a retirement home in Glen Burnie, Maryland,” Christopher Buchanan said. “They were 10 feet high and eight feet long and they were bulletin boards for the residents to put notices on for each other.”