Leo, Nick, and Steven Cantos did it all — whitewater rafting, zip lining, archery, knot-tying, learning first-aid skills and more — without being able to see.
They mastered every badge required to become Eagle Scouts. The Boy Scouts said the 18-year-old triplets weren’t allowed any shortcuts, and they earned the ranking under the same conditions as their peers.
Leo Cantos said, “The badges we earned helped us become better people.”
The brothers said their favorite part of the accomplishment was their community service project because it allowed them to help those less fortunate. They conducted a blood drive and collected school supplies for children in need.
More than a hundred family members, friends, and fellow Scouts, as well as U.S. Sec. of Labor R. Alexander Acosta, watched them receive the honor at a recent ceremony.
The teens from Arlington, Virginia — all born blind — celebrated their achievement with their adoptive father Ollie Cantos, an attorney who is also blind. He met the triplets when they were 11, and he says he found them living a life of fear.
But Nick Cantos said his father has helped him to keep going when he was scared.
Saying, “a person who shows courage in a time of fear can do anything.”
Before they met Ollie Cantos, the boys were living with their mother, who was struggling to raise them on her own. So the attorney took the boys under his wing. Their bond grew so strong that Ollie Cantos decided to formally adopt the boys.