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AUGUSTA — Exactly 55,186 young men became Eagle Scouts in 2016 and performing a combined 9,156,368 hours of service on projects benefitting communities all over the nation. Locally, there were 37 Scouts last year earning Scouting’s highest honor and contributing nearly 4000 hours of service to towns in Franklin, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln and Somerset counties.
On August 23, four local Life Scouts passed their Eagle Scout Board of Review and are one step closer to attaining the highest award in Scouting.
Nicholas Huber, Troop 216, Jefferson; Jared Handley, Troop 401, Sidney; Carter Richmond, Troop 428, Pittsfield; and Morgan Young, Troop 603, Augusta, met with Scouting leaders from the Kennebec Valley District, who sat on their Board of Review. Their job was not to retest the young man on the skills learned in Scouting but to ask open-ended questions designed to see if Scouting is meeting its goal of developing citizenship, character and fitness in Scouts.
In order to sit for a board, the Life Scout had to complete all other requirements for Eagle designation, including holding a leadership position within the troop, earning the required number of merit badges, and completing a significant Eagle Scout service project in their community.
Richmond built a large storage shed for sports equipment for the new fields at Maine Central Institute; Young oversaw the building of a large footbridge at Viles Arboretum so people can go from the parking lot to some sycamore trees imported from Ellis Island without having to slog through a trench; Huber wanted to give people a place where they could store US Flags that are ready to be retired so they wouldn’t just throw away the symbol of our nation, so he built retired-flag boxes, where the flags can be stored until a flag retirement ceremony can be held; and Handley built a roof over the side entrance of the Sidney Second Baptist Church. Then he found out the wood around the door had become damaged from the elements, and he replaced that as well.
Their applications for Eagle, Service Project workbooks, and Life Ambition statements will be reviewed by Pine Tree Council Scout Executive Eric Tarbox before they are sent to national Boy Scouts of America for final approval. If they are certified, the Scouts will officially have become Eagles on the day they passed their Eagle Scout Board of Review and are free to organize an appropriate ceremony.
