Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Troop 580 Sets Record- 11 Eagle Scouts In One Year

West Allis troop sets record for 11 Eagle Scouts in one year

Jane Ford-Stewart, Now News GroupPublished 8:24 a.m. CT Jan. 17, 2018 | Updated 6:04 p.m. CT Jan. 19, 2018

WEST ALLIS - Eleven new Eagle Scouts spread their wings last year, and all of them from the same Boy Scout Troop 580 of Mount Hope Lutheran Church, 8633 W. Becher St., in West Allis.

Eleven in one year is a record for the troop that in all its 75 years has launched 82 Eagle Scouts into the world.

"One year we had seven, but we never had 11," said proud Scoutmaster David Loosen. The folks at the Three Harbors Council that oversees Boy Scouting in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties never heard of one troop having so many Eagle Scouts, said Walter Smith, director of field service. However, they would have to check 100 years or so of records to see if 11 is an actual record, he said.

Loosen offered many reasons for how that came about, with some of the main ones being making it fun, having supportive adults to be chaperones and to do a million other things to support the troop and coaching and encouraging the boys.

"That's a constant," Loosen said of the coaching and encouraging.

It better be fun

Making it fun is the fun part. Every year, the troop gets together to decide what they want to do. They debate and then they all vote. One time it was staying overnight in the World War II submarine docked at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc. Other times, it has been zip lining at the Wisconsin Dells and whitewater rafting. Last year, the older scouts went to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The year before they visited Acadia National Park in Maine. The Scouts also have been to Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

There have to be activities for all ages, but some are only for the older Scouts. Looking forward to when they get to do those things, too, keeps younger Scouts interested, Loosen said.

This July, the Scouts will travel to where the movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed in Iowa, and will explore a cave accessible only by water. July also will bring a trip to Ohio to visit The Wilds large animal park and where the boys will zip line over some of the animals.

"It's something to experience that's really unique," Loosen said.

"We look for challenging activities that capture the imagination," he said.

Better people

The idea is to make Scouting fun, and at the same time weave the Scouting ideals embodied in the Scout Oath and in the 12 points of Scout law into everything the boys do, Loosen said.

The Scout Oath is three-fold -- duty to God and country, duty to others and duty to self. Then there are the 12 points to the Scout law: "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent."

"When they strive to live up to the 12 points, they not only become better people but we become a better society," Loosen said.

That happens regardless of whether a Scout achieves the Eagle rank or leaves the program early.

"Any amount of time, they still gain something of the ideals that define the program," Loosen said.

He himself is an Eagle Scout. Loosen said he received so much from the program that as soon as he could, he actually worked for the Boy Scouts of America. He retired a half dozen years ago as the director of support services for the Milwaukee Council.

Start age 11

The young eagles started when they were only 11, looking down a long, long road toward the Eagle rank. And they had to get there before they were 18.

Eagle Scouts have to earn 21 badges, including 13 of the hardest that are required. Those are three citizenship badges, one for citizenship in the community, another for citizenship in the nation and the third for citizenship in the world. Others are communication, physical fitness, personal management (budgeting, financial literacy and the like), environmental science or sustainability, emergency preparedness or lifesaving, choice of the swimming, hiking or cycling badge, camping, cooking and finally the family\-life badge. For the rest of the 21, Scouts can choose from more than 100 optional badges.

On top of that, Troop 580 expects Scouts to serve in leadership roles in addition to planning and executing an Eagle project.

See no end

Jack Wanner, now 17 and one of the 11 new Eagle Scouts, remembers that long road and how it was tough sometimes to keep going.

"I wanted to stop only a few times, just because when you are in mid-ground, you don't see the end," said the Nathan Hale High School student.

So, what kept him going month after month, year after year?

"I wanted to prove to myself I could finish this," he said. Wanner freely acknowledged that when he was young, he was "kind of troublesome."

"Becoming an Eagle would prove that I'm maturing as a human being," he said.

Profound impact

Unlike some of his fellow Eagle Scouts, he is the first in his family to achieve Scouting's highest rank. As he worked toward it, Scouting was having a profound impact on his life, the young man said.

"It taught the basics of being a gentleman. It teaches you how to grow up and to take life by the horns," he said.

Wanner's Eagle Scout project was restoring the monarch butterfly trail on the Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa.

"Everyone was doing building for the community, but without a good eco system, you can't have a good community," he said.

The project involved organizing volunteers and planning finally last August a lot of hard work clearing an area. Then they planted the kind of plants that monarchs like, mostly milkweed, he said.

Warm heart

Fellow Eagle Scout Chase L'Amie, now 18 and a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, leaves behind nearly 80 warm beds for dogs at the Wisconsin Humane Society to curl up and sleep on. That was the dog-lover's Eagle project.

"We drove to the shelter and were looking around and it clicked when I heard employees saying there was a need. So I asked," he said. Finding an enthusiastic response from the shelter, L'Amie was soon on his way to Goodwill in search of good blanket material and to fabric stores to ask for donations. He and his volunteers tied two pieces of fabric together to create the doggie beds.

"I've seen some of my beds with dogs lying down on them," L'Amie said. "It helps me sleep at night when they can sleep at night."

Even though he comes from a long line of Eage Scouts — his father and his grandfather both are Eagle Scouts — L'Amie said he wanted it for himself, to know that he could do it.

Step by step

"And everything you learn along the way could give opportunity in the future and the skills will help me succeed later on throughout my entire life," he said. Time management, learning to listen to everybody's ideas and even basic first-aid knots are among the skills he feels Scouting gave to him. But there are so many others, "I could go on and on," he said.

The hardest part wasn't any particular badge or project, it was the amount of things you have to achieve before you are 18, he said.

"But you take it step by step and rank by rank, it helps you put things into perspective. You go goal by goal instead of looking at the whole thing. Then it's do-able."

He's a Prinz

West Allis Central High School student Aaron Prinz roared through the Eagle Scout program, earning the honor by the time he was 15.

"All the badges were fun to work on and complete," said Aaron who added, "I'm thankful for all the people who helped me along the way."

"I thought I could do it if I worked hard enough," he said, "And seeing others earning it," inspired him.

His Eagle project was establishing a Little Lending Library at Mount Hope Lutheran Church and holding a book drive to fill it. The drive was so successful that filled up not only the Mount Hope Little Lending Library, but about 40 more similar libraries.

Aaron said he picked that project to improve literacy and to share his love of reading. With an elementary school and West Allis Central both nearby, children and high school students alike will be more likely to read if they have access to books anytime, he said.

6.8 tons of stone

A massive and more muscular Eagle project was chosen by Eagle Scout Charlie Dennert,17, a Waukesha North High School student. His was wrangling two full pallets of sand and 6.8 tons of stone into a circular path through a garden at his church, St. William Catholic Church in Waukesha. It was hard work for the 20 Scouts and other volunteers and was a challenge for their leader.

When the whole project is on your shoulders, "It's not an easy thing," the young Eagle Scout said. Not only that, leadership means encouraging a good attitude while volunteers spend hours at hard labor, he said.

What did he do? "You just have to communicate the significance of the project," Dennert said.

And, indeed, parishioners have remarked at how much more welcoming the church entrance is, he said.

"That means a lot to me," he said.

Much more

Also on the honor roll of 2017 Eagle Scouts from Troop 580 are:

Devin Meritz, who built planter boxes for an elementary school in West Allis
Luke Crotteau, who rebuilt a horse shed and set fence posts for a riding stable that works with special needs youth
Mitchell Price, who helped redo one of the displays at the West Allis Historical Society
Alec Mickelson, who scrapped and repainted picnic tables at LaFollette Park
Noah Swirth, who scrapped and repainted the metal hand railings at McCarty Park
Tyler Stepp, who redid one of the rooms at Mount Hope by repainting it and putting up shelving
Christopher Selfors, who did a food drive to benefit the Mount Hope Pantry that provides food to the families of homeless students in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District

Friday, July 3, 2015

4th Of July- Independence Day

Variously known as the Fourth of July and Independence Day, July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution (1775-83). In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later its delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 until the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence, with typical festivities ranging from fireworks, parades and concerts to more casual family gatherings and barbecues.

THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

When the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical. By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in Thomas Paine’s bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published in early 1776. On June 7, when the Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee–including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York–to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.

Did You Know?

John Adams believed that July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American independence, and would reportedly turn down invitations to appear at July 4th events in protest. Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826--the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.

EARLY FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS

In the pre-Revolutionary years, colonists had held annual celebrations of the king’s birthday, which traditionally included the ringing of bells, bonfires, processions and speechmaking. By contrast, during the summer of 1776 some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III, as a way of symbolizing the end of the monarchy’s hold on America and the triumph of liberty. Festivities including concerts, bonfires, parades and the firing of cannons and muskets usually accompanied the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, beginning immediately after its adoption. Philadelphia held the first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777, while Congress was still occupied with the ongoing war. George Washingtonissued double rations of rum to all his soldiers to mark the anniversary of independence in 1778, and in 1781, several months before the key American victory at Yorktown, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th an official state holiday.

After the Revolutionary War, Americans continued to commemorate Independence Day every year, in celebrations that allowed the new nation’s emerging political leaders to address citizens and create a feeling of unity. By the last decade of the 18th century, the two major political parties–Federalists and Democratic-Republicans–that had arisen began holding separate Independence Day celebrations in many large cities.

JULY 4TH BECOMES A NATIONAL HOLIDAY

The tradition of patriotic celebration became even more widespread after the War of 1812, in which the United States again faced Great Britain. In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees. Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.

Falling in mid-summer, the Fourth of July has since the late 19th century become a major focus of leisure activities and a common occasion for family get-togethers, often involving fireworks and outdoor barbecues. The most common symbol of the holiday is the American flag, and a common musical accompaniment is “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Eagle Scout Project Honors Veterans

Eagle Scout project: War veterans recount their service for Library of Congress

Derek Copeland organized volunteers to interview vets for his Eagle Scout project.

Ted Paluch never considered himself much of a soldier.

But the 92-year-old veteran's lips began to quiver when asked what he learned from World War II.

"It made me a little more tolerant," he said.

Paluch fell silent, adjusted his glasses, and pulled a tissue from the pocket of his blazer.

"That's about it," he whispered.

Sitting in a Philadelphia office on Sunday morning, Paluch recalled his experience surviving the Malmedy massacre of 1944, when German troops lined up and killed 84 U.S. soldiers captured during the Battle of the Bulge. Paluch escaped with only a bullet wound in a hand.

His memories, recorded Sunday, will be archived at the Library Congress as part of its Veterans History Project. Derek Copeland, 17, of University City, a member of Boy Scout Troop 665 in Dresher, organized the day of interviews with Paluch and 15 other veterans as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Each of the participating veterans, who served in conflicts from World War II to Iraq, sat for interviews at least an hour long.

"I wish I could have some First World War vets, but they're a little past their prime today," said Copeland, a junior at Delaware Valley Friends School.

The Veterans History project, which began in 2000, keeps the recorded interviews in a searchable archive and makes them available to the public.

Paluch's interview, which will soon become part of those archives, includes stories of growing up working at his family's candy shop in Kensington, being drafted into the Army at 20, and training in Oklahoma.

He went overseas a few months after D-Day in 1944. A few months later, he was moving through Belgium with the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when his unit ran into German troops and was captured near the town of Malmedy.

Even 70 years later, the horror of the day remains vivid for Paluch.

The Germans lined up the American soldiers in a field and began to shoot. Paluch said he was standing in the front row and fell to the ground after he was shot in the hand.

As the Germans moved among the moaning U.S. soldiers on the ground, shooting many in the head, Paluch stayed alive by remaining motionless.

"Didn't move," he said. "Just played dead a couple hours."

He said he later dove into a row of hedges, found a few other survivors from his battalion, and traveled back to join the rest of the American troops.

Dec. 17 marked the 70th anniversary of the massacre. Paluch said he spent the day calling another survivor and visiting the grave of a Philadelphia soldier who was killed.

His interviewers – Copeland's father, Larry, and younger brother Chuckie – sat silently as Paluch removed his glasses and wiped his face.

"It was gratifying to hear," Larry Copeland told other volunteers after the interview. "I don't know if enjoyed is the right word – it was some tough stuff."

Derek Copeland said he developed the idea for his Eagle Scout project because he loves history.

"Derek could not be deterred from doing this project," said his mother, Laurie Segal, even though his troop leaders warned him it would be challenging to find veterans to complete a project that resulted in recordings rather than a tangible product.

The 16 veterans he found, however, were happy to share their stories.

Len Feldman, 91, of Center City, arrived for his interview holding a poster-size photo of himself in Germany on V-E Day, posing with two fingers in the air to represent V for victory.

He did not remember where in Germany his V-E Day photo was taken, or the names of the other two soldiers posing beside him. But he did remember the emotion of the moment.

"They just told us the war was over," Feldman said. "Of course, we had no idea if we were going to be shipped to Japan after that."

Feldman said it was refreshing to sit and recall his three years in the Army during World War II.

Paluch, however, is accustomed to telling his story. Decades after the war, journalists and researchers began calling him for interviews. In 2007, he traveled to Belgium to participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new museum.

But when Paluch was discharged on Jan. 1, 1946, he told his interviewers on Sunday, he did not know that anyone would care to hear his story. All he wanted was to return home to Philadelphia, where he worked for several years in a trucking business.

"I wasn't a soldier," he said, laughing. "I figured the war was over, and that was enough for me."

lmccrystal@phillynews.com

610-313-8116 @Lmccrystal

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Bronx boy scout honored for saving elderly neighbor and toddler from apartment fire

Jack Dailey, 17, of Riverdale's Troop 240, steered Marion Lawrence, 74, and 1-year-old Jake Garrett through smoke-filled hallways to a fire escape.

BY BEN KOCHMAN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 9:09 PM

Eagle Scout Jack Dailey of Troop 240 used his eagle eyes to help an elderly great grandmother and young child escape from a Riverdale apartment in January.

This scout has eagle eyes for danger.

A 17-year-old heroic Bronx boy scout was awarded the greatest honor the Boy Scouts can bestow after he raced into a burning apartment building in January to save his elderly neighbor and a toddler.

“I just did the only thing that made sense,” said Jack Dailey of Troop 240 in Riverdale. “I didn’t really think about should I do this or shouldn’t I. I just did it.”

The brave boy scout steered Marion Lawrence, 74, and 1-year-old Jake Garrett through smoke-filled hallways to a fire escape.

He said he smelled smoke when he returned home to the seventh and highest floor of his brick apartment building at W. 240th St. near Waldo Ave. on Jan. 30.

The source of the fire came from apartment 7D, where Lawrence was baby-sitting little Jake.

The great-grandmother, holding the child in her arms, swung open the door as smoke billowed out of the bedroom.

She handed Jack the baby — and then they high-tailed it to another apartment, where the boy scout called 911 with one hand, while cradling the tot in the other, he recalled.

He pushed a dresser out of the way and calmly led his neighbors to safety out the window to a fire escape.

“I was the only person there who did not freak out completely,” Jack told the Daily News on Tuesday, between his classes and cross country practice.

“Just getting out was the only thing on my mind,” the Archbishop Stepinac High School senior added.

Dailey received the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms -- the Boy Scouts’ highest honor – at a ceremony with fellow scouts on Oct. 16.

Firefighters retrieved them around an hour later, when the blaze was under control, the FDNY said.

The New York City Scouts and the National Court of Honor gave the cherubic high schooler the coveted Honor Medal with Crossed Palms during an Oct. 16 award ceremony.

He has also since risen the ranks to Eagle Scout — the highest rank a boy scout can attain.

The quick-thinking teenager’s troop leader said he wasn’t surprised to hear of Jack’s good deed.

“That’s absolutely what Jack would do,” said Avi Rubenstein, who has served as Troop 240’s scout master for the past five years. “He’s so calm under pressure, it’s not funny.”

The rescued tot and his family have since moved out of the apartment, which was gutted by flames, according to the toddler’s father, Sean Garrett.

“I couldn’t express enough how grateful we were (to Jack),” Garrett said.

The young hero is hoping to one day join the city’s Police Department instead of suiting up as a firefighter, despite the heroics.

“My mom doesn’t want me to be a fireman because it’s too dangerous,” he said.

Harrah Boy Scouts save dog's life

Posted: Oct 21, 2014 8:52 PM CDTUpdated: Nov 11, 2014 8:53 PM CST

By: Christine VanTimmeren, Primetime Reporter

A group of Boy Scouts in Harrah are being called heroes after they saved the life of a dog in Shawnee.

Last Friday, four members of Troop 65 from Harrah were camping outside a Shawnee church, when they heard a woman screaming for help.

"I started screaming for help," said Sherri Claybrooke. "I was just beside myself because every moment was going to count."

Claybrooke had just let her three dogs in the backyard when one named Zeke got caught in Mimi's collar and Mimi was being choked.

Hearing the cries for help the scouts jumped the fence and jumped into action. Two ran for adult help while Zack VanZant and another worked to calm Claybrooke and help Mimi.

"I pulled out my pocket knife and you could barely get the knife blade under the collar because it was so tight," VanZant said.

VanZant managed to free Mimi from the collar but she was already limp.

"I checked for a pulse and a heartbeat and breathing on Mimi and there was nothing," VanZant said. "She had flatlined."

Being a Boy Scout, VanZant was prepared and began to give Mimi CPR.

"I got a dog a few months ago. I was Googling how to do CPR on dogs. So I knew the basics," he said.

Within 30 seconds Mimi started breathing again. VanZant had saved her life.

"That was probably the highlight of my life because nothing like that has ever happened to me before," VanZant said.

The four boys will probably never receive a badge for their bravery, but knowing they saved a life will stick with them forever. Mimi is now back to her full strength and doing well. Claybrooke can't thank the boys enough for what they did.

R.I. Eagle Scout mining new field: Book publishing

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Between earning his black belt in karate and achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, Sean Fay Wolfe began writing a book that has become “Quest For Justice, A Minecraft Novel."

By Donita Naylor

Posted Mar. 24, 2014 @ 10:22 pm

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Between earning his black belt in karate and achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, Sean Fay Wolfe, then 14, began writing a book that has become “Quest For Justice, A Minecraft Novel: Book One of the Elementia Chronicles.”

Now 16, Wolfe has self-published his first book, at 420 pages, and imagined a series of nine books set inside the Minecraft game. With readers asking for the next installment, Wolfe has begun writing the second book.

Wolfe relies on his parents, Vic and Kelli Fay-Wolfe, both instructors at the University of Rhode Island, to act as publisher, editor and marketing agent. His two younger brothers, Eric, 15, and Casey, 10, were some of his first readers, and their enthusiasm encouraged him to continue, he said.

The book introduces readers to the world of Minecraft, where everything, even trees and water, is made of cubes. “Think LEGOs,” Wolfe says.

Players can dig in mines or chop at trees for building materials, and they collect items that might prove helpful in crafting tools for better building, sustenance and defense.

The teaser on the back cover introduces the main character, Stan2012:

“Stan has never played Minecraft before but from the start he loves the action of building with the infinite blocks that make up the world around him. He finds it exhilarating to battle the monsters of the night alongside his newfound friends, Charlie and Kat, on the Minecraft server Elementia. Before long, however, the three discover that there is a prejudice against new players on the server, and they witness many hate crimes …”

Guided by an instruction book, the three main characters enroll in a boot camp, thus introducing non-Minecraft players to all the game’s threats and survival strategies.

With inspiration from “Harry Potter” and “Hunger Games” books, Wolfe said, the “Elementia Chronicles” imagines life as if a player woke up inside the game, with nothing in his blocky grasp, and his clothing “the standard look for a Minecraft player who had not yet changed his skin, or appearance.”

Wolfe, who hopes to write full-time as an adult, spoke about his book and other accomplishments at a table in his family’s spacious colonial in a South Kingstown neighborhood off Route 2. The family dog, Lucky, stretched up to be petted as Wolfe talked.

(The Fay-Wolfes said they hyphenate their name but, because the boys are the last of the Wolfe line, encouraged Sean to use Wolfe without the hyphen as his pen name.)

Since the book came out in January, Wolfe has been “blown away” by reviews on Amazon, was asked to speak as a guest author at his former elementary school, was asked to mentor a boy in New Jersey who loves Minecraft and heard from a father in England who found that reading the book to his autistic son forged bonds between them.

Wolfe said he started to play Minecraft in late 2011, right around its official release. “There was a period where I was pretty obsessed,” he said. “I formulated a story in my head” and started writing fan fiction. He outlined the entire book, he said, before he started writing. “Whenever I had an idea, I would scratch it down in the back of my school notebook.”

His fourth- and fifth-grade teacher is “not at all surprised” that Wolfe has written a book.

“He always, on his own time, wrote stories,” said Alison Santerre, who teaches at Kingston Hill Academy. “He loved to do creative writing in his spare time.”

He was in a small group of students who wrote literary essays, she said, “Pretty sophisticated for fourth or fifth grade.”

During his sophomore year at South Kingstown High School, his half-completed book sat forgotten in his laptop while he got busy with other things, such as playing the viola, and working on his Eagle Scout project of building a cat run and adding shade to the dog runs at the South Kingstown pound. Then he found his book while housekeeping on his computer. He asked his mother to read it.

“I was surprised that I really enjoyed the book,” she said. “I really wanted to know what happened next.” She came to a conclusion: “We have to make this happen.”

The book, available at amazon.com and locally at Wakefield Books, Barrington Books, Books on the Square, in Providence, and Island Books, in Middletown, is printed on demand, so the Fay-Wolfes had very little to pay upfront. It’s also available through Kindle Direct and through Smashwords for Nook and iTunes.

For more information, visit Wolfe’s website, www.sfaywolfe.com.

Wolfe said he thought it would be a good idea to tap into the world of Minecraft, because the game’s popularity could provide a reader base. A Wikipedia entry says that as of Feb. 3, the game has sold more than 14 million copies on PC and more than 35 million copies across all platforms.

Wolfe rides a wave of acceptance for self-published books.

“There has been a change in the respect for self-publishing,” said Laura Rossi Totten, of Jamestown, who has been a publicist for 23 years. Self-publishing was “that unwanted guest at the party.”

Now, she said, “Every single editor at publishers large and small have made it a job to monitor and really watch the trends that are happening in self-publishing. There is sort of an unspoken mandate coming from the top,” she said. Editors and agents “really don’t want to miss the next bestseller.”

She said that with some well-known authors exploring self-publishing, and major publishers paying six figures for self-published books that have proven their appeal to readers, “The stigma is gone.”

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Bowker, a publishing research firm, tracked 391,000 self-published titles in 2012, up from 51,237 in 2006. In 2013, self-published books accounted for 32 percent of the 100 top-selling ebooks on Amazon each week, on average.

They average 25 to 30 percent of the titles on The New York Times bestseller list, said Amy Edelman, of IndieReader, a web-based consumer guide to self-published books and the people who write them.

To Totten, Wolfe’s book “has all the elements of kind of a runaway success. It would be really cool” if his book took off.

TROOP 580 WEBSITE