On Saturday, October 6th, Boy Scout Troop 55 in Blauvelt celebrated their Fall Court of Honor to celebrate the accomplishments of all the Scouts who earned Merit Badges over the summer and who have achieved the next rank in Scouting. What made this event so special
for the Troop is that they promoted 4 Scouts to the rank of Life, which puts their total at 6 Life Scouts for the Troop since June of this year.
The Boy Scouts who achieved this rank are: Stephane Ceccato, Charlie Harten, John Hraska, Joseph Ruotolo, Joseph Sarubbi and Brian Wunsch. Not only did they have to work on Merit Badges, but each one had to come up with a project that they had to plan out, get approved by their Scoutmaster, recruit volunteers and execute successfully in order to help them complete the requirements that they needed.
All 6 Scouts have all worked very hard over the last year to attain this Rank…and they are all 14 years old! They all started in the Troop together 4 years ago and have worked hard to get to where they are.
In Boy Scouts, it is the Troop’s job to make sure that every Scout reaches the rank of 1st Class. After they have made it to that point, the boy is on his own to advance through the next 3 ranks: Star, Life and the prestigious Eagle Scouts. As a Scout moves up, the requirements become more challenging and many boys do not move up as quickly or at all through these ranks.
At this point, advancement is a personal choice and many boys are content to stay at 1st Class or maybe just move on to Star. To have one or two Scouts make Life in a year is a big deal for any Troop, but to have 6 young men achieve it in less than 6 months is quite impressive. Although they are only one step away from Eagle, it is a big step, only 3% of Boy Scouts actually earn this coveted achievement.
The next step will be tough, with more Merit Badges to complete and a project that not only needs approval from their Troop Committee but also from a special panel appropriately named the Eagle Board of Review. With the target of making Eagle Scout in their sights, we want to wish them all the best in achieving their goal.
