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A couple thoughts:


A lifetime membership to NESA wouldn't be a bad idea - not cheap, but a meaningful gift.


Northwest Territorial Mint makes Eagle Scout Coins - I'm not personally into them, but many people are.


A walking staff with an eagle medallion might be a cool gift.


A really nice compass (you know, "to guide your way" etc, etc.) could be meaningful and useful.


You could get him a cool knife (I recently purchased this one) and have it engraved in some meaningful way. I'm personally more into the Spyderco line of knives, but the Kershaw is more cost-effective.


Also know that a gift is not expected - if you're invited to his Court of Honor, the only thing requested is your presence.

i just ran a good sized cub scout camping trip with 47 people. for dinner, we had tinfoil packet cooking and we had about 1/3lb of meat per person + 5lbs of hot dogs plus a lot of potatoes, carrots, bell peppers and onions. this was not enough. nothing came home. so, i doubt 1/4lb will be enough. i'd bump that up to at least 1/3lb and maybe even closer to 1/2lb. don't forget, the meat is going to shrink as you cook it.

we just made tacos at home. 1 good sized tomato was plenty for my family of 5 with leftovers. maybe figure 1 tomato per 7 people. if you shred up lettuce, i'm betting 2 heads will be plenty. people don't put a lot of tomatoes and lettuce on tacos. get a big bag of pre-shredded cheese too.

we make breakfast burritos for our camp breakfast, but we premake them. we made 50 burritos using 10" wraps at home. then, on that morning we get a fire going and put the foil wrapped wraps on campfire grills over the coals. i used 10 quarts of pre-scrambled eggs, about 45 slices of cheese and 30 sausage patties. they are a huge hit every time and make breakfast so much easier since all of the heavy lifting is done at home. we made about 20 sausage, egg and cheese, 20 egg and cheese and 10 just egg. next time, i would make 30 sausage/egg/cheese, 20 egg/cheese and maybe 3 just egg.

i HIGHLY recommend checking your area for a restaurant supply place. the one by me, Restaurant Depot, only serves restaurant and food businesses, but also allows for non-profits to use it as well. their prices are much better than Costco for bulk items, but be realistic about what you need in bulk. i've got about 7lbs of sausage patties and a huge pack of american cheese sitting in my fridge now. i think i can keep the sausage in the freezer until our next trip, but it was total overkill.

Last Breath: The Limits of Adventure

Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook

I have brought both these books to many summer camps. They are fun to pass around and both have excellent scouting uses.

If you just want something to read for fun if you haven't read World War Z/Zombie Survival Guide those are fun written by Mel Brooks son.

11/22/63 by Stephen King is an amazing read. Someone from today travels back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination.

I read mostly fantasy/scifi so I'm probably not much help.

I always recommend a Swiss Army Knife for scouts. Sure it isn't as cool as a single blade(tactical) knife, but they are so useful. My preference is for the Victorinox Climber (link below) but any of theor knives will serve you well for years to come. I like the climber because more than 3 layers gets thick, and I find scissors more handy than a saw blade.

https://smile.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Climber-Pocket-Knife/dp/B00004YVBA/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=3I80J975JR1A0&keywords=victorinox%2Bclimber&qid=1551040224&s=gateway&sprefix=Victorinox%2Bclimbe&sr=8-3&th=1&psc=1

Link to a good backpack on Amazon, please?

How about this one?

My son is about 4'8" and 68 pounds (super-skinny).

It sounds cheesy, but there is scouting literature out there that's not produced by National. I personally own Scout's Honor, which is a dad telling the story of bringing his kid into scouting and what they both learned, and Legacy of Honor, where some Eagle Scouts are interviewed about what scouting means to them long after they left their troop. Both non-fiction.

If you want fiction, plus seeing how different scouting has become over the last 60 years, there's Tops in Troop 10, which I also own, but I found unintentionally hilarious with the 1950's style "Gosh golly Chet, what if the giant mountain lion ain't a legend... and he's hungry!"

I just bought this from Amazon. We used it at Summer camp and had patrols compete against each other. Just had to weed out a couple questions that weren't scout appropriate (eg. name a fruit that's used to describe a woman's body).

NOLS Cookery is the foremost authority on backpacking food planning: http://www.amazon.com/Cookery-National-Outdoor-Leadership-Library/dp/0811731081/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1334325110&sr=8-2

You can buy Avery key tags and take off the ring:
https://www.amazon.com/Avery-11025-Tags-Split-White/dp/B00006IBQ4/ref=sr_1_1

bayite 3/8 x 4 Inch Drilled Survival Ferro Rod Flint Fire Starter with Toggle Lanyard Hole https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S6F4ODU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0kjwDbXRA7VMG