Nurse, Mark Schraut, Earns Boy Scouts' Silver Beaver Award

Mark Schraut earns Boy Scouts’ Silver Beaver Award

Scouting is more than a hobby to south countian Mark Schraut. For years it’s been a second career of sorts for Schraut and his wife, Susan, who have volunteered for the last two decades as co-advisors with Medical Explorer Post 9152 at St. Anthony’s Medical Center.

Schraut, an Eagle Scout himself, was honored June 5, in ceremonies at Forest Park, with the highest honor an adult volunteer of the Boy Scouts can earn – the Silver Beaver Award. The award is presented to volunteers who have made outstanding contributions to the Scouting program; Schraut was one of 22 recipients honored by the Greater St. Louis Area Council, Boy Scouts of America.

“I feel honored, and that’s why we do it,” said Schraut, R.N., an evening nursing shift director in Nursing Administration at St. Anthony’s.

A ballpark estimate is that a dozen doctors, dozens of paramedics and physical therapists and 100 nurses have found their calling while participating in the co-ed post, which has introduced more than 300 high school students to careers in the medical field.

“Even the Scouts who didn’t go on to health care careers contact us every so often and tell us they still use the first-aid skills and medical know-how they received from their training in the Explorer Post,” Schraut said. “Even though they decided not to continue in health care, they continue to fall back on these skills periodically.”

The Schrauts serve as co-advisors of the post with Susan’s parents, Jeanine and Wayne Ashwell, who have volunteered with the post since Susan first joined in 1983. Both veteran Scouts, Susan and Mark first met while members of the post in 1984; Susan, an R.N., works part-time in St. Anthony’s Nursery. Jeanine Ashwell, R.N., is retired from the medical center’s Progressive Care Unit. All live in the south county area.

Susan and Mark Schraut and St. Anthony’s Medical Center all are past recipients of the William H. Spurgeon III Award, the highest honor available through the Exploring Division of the Greater St. Louis Council of the Boy Scouts of America. St. Anthony’s is one of only four hospitals in the St. Louis area to support a health-related Explorer Post and has the longest tenure of any of the hospitals. The post meets twice a month during the school year, and the Schrauts work to schedule guest speakers on health-related topics, visits to various departments in the medical center, courses in basic first aid and CPR and field trips to the local 911 dispatch center and other destinations. Members also volunteer for special events, such as providing first aid at Lindbergh School District’s annual Spirit Festival and at the Memorial Day Good Turn Day at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

Recently, members of the extended Schraut family found themselves busy with other Scouting-related honors, in addition to Mark’s Silver Beaver Award. The two eldest Schraut children, Sarah and Emily, received their Silver and Bronze awards, respectively, from the Girl Scouts of America. Wayne and Jeanine Ashwell each received the Learning for Life Leadership Award from the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in honor of their leadership in the Exploring program. And Mark and Susan also attended a ceremony honoring past recipients of Silver Beaver awards, many of them elders in their sixties, seventies and eighties.

“You know, it was definitely an honor when we were able to meet these other people who earned a Silver Beaver,” Susan Schraut said. “For Mark to be put in that group of honorees was a real privilege.”

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Nurse, Mark Schraut, Earns Boy Scouts' Silver Beaver Award