BY SARAH ALFAHAM

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Sam Osterhout, 17, of Orange County is just eight merit badges short of earning all 121 offered by the Boy Scouts of America.

According to scouting officials, he would be only the second scout in the Heart of Virginia Council -- which serves about 600 units and more than 19,000 youth members -- to make the merit-badge sweep.

Osterhout belongs to two troops -- Troop 806 in Midlothian and Troop 16 in Unionville, which he helped form when his family moved to Orange County.

Only about 3 percent of Boy Scouts become Eagle Scouts, and that takes 21 merit badges. Osterhout said that by the time he became an Eagle Scout, he had 55 merit badges and decided to continue.

Kerry Baker, director of development for the Richmond-based Heart of Virginia Council, said the only other scout in the council to earn all 121 merit badges is Robert Clifton McDaniel Jr., 19, of Nottoway County.

McDaniel, who joined Troop 7538 in Victoria when he was 12, said he set out to earn all the badges soon after he became a scout. He became an Eagle Scout by age 14, and by 16 he had earned all 121 badges. He is now an assistant scoutmaster.

The Boy Scouts of America does not keep records on the number of boys nationally who achieve all 121 badges. Renee Fairrer, associate director of marketing and communications for the national organization, said the accomplishment is highly unusual.

"In my 10 years of working here, he's probably the eighth person that has achieved this," Fairrer said of Osterhout. When it's all over, "you probably have one of the most well-rounded young men that you could ever see or meet."

Contact Sarah Alfaham at salfaham@timesdispatch.com