Loading ...
Amway logo
Skip to main content

ALICIA M. CLYBURN

Photo of Heather Baker Photo of Heather Baker
Alicia arrived to pick up her 8-year old son one day from school, he took her by the hand and led her into a room full of boys and their parents. They told her they were forming a Cub Scout™† pack, and because they had seen her around in uniform, they said they wanted her as their leader.

“What did they know about my leadership skills?” Alicia asks today, laughing. “I thought, 'Well, I am in charge of troops …,’ and that’s how it started.”

Over the next 20 years, Alicia saw 66 boys from inner-city Detroit rise through the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America®†, guiding 16 of them to Eagle Scout®*, or nearly a quarter of them – a figure far higher than the 5% of Scouts who normally reach that level.

She also became the first woman with more than eight Scouts to reach Eagle. Nearly all of her Scouts attended college, with some even attending Harvard, Yale, and West Point. And others have successful careers on Wall Street or in the military.

Her influence goes beyond her involvement with Troop 409. “It’s impossible to overstate the impact she had on these kids,” said Harding Fears, the Scoutmaster®† who took over for Alicia after she retired. “She’s a legend in the Scouting®† community, locally and nationally. People see 409 on my shirt and always ask ‘How is Alicia?'”

†Scoutmaster, Eagle Scout, Scouting, and Cub Scouts are registered trademarks of Boy Scouts of America. Cub Scout and Boy Scout are trademarks of Boy Scouts of America.