Eight Local Scouts Awarded Eagle Rank with Troop 16

Eight Eagles Group 2015: Photo provided by Janderson Photograpy. Pictured here are the newest Eagle Scouts in Troop 16. Front row, left to right: Alex Conrad, Cole Moon, Joe Nanfria, and Dustin Slider. Back row, left to right: Bradley Ruetten, Jack Daurer, Collin Moon, and Dominic Zibrun.

Eight local Boy Scouts from Troop 16 in Sycamore were recently awarded the Eagle Rank, the highest award achievable in Boy Scouts. Recipients of this high honor include Alex Conrad, Jack Daurer, Cole Moon, Collin Moon, Joe Nanfria, Bradley Ruetten, Dustin Slider, and Dominic Zibrun. This special awards ceremony arranged by the boys and their parents was recently held at the Federated Church in Sycamore. This ceremony recognized the boys for their achievement of learning new skills by earning a minimum of 21 merit badges, staying active in their troop for several years, living by the Principles of the Scout Oath and Scout Law, and completing a service project that benefited the community in some way. Each scout organized and planned their own service projects. Some projects benefitted St. Mary’s School in Sycamore which included building a 16’ x 30’ deck for the playground area for the students, building a retaining wall to prevent the power box at the top of the hill from sliding down into the school, and building eight storage shelves for the Kindergarten and First grade classes. Additional Eagle projects included collecting and sending over 100 care packages to military service men and women, refurnishing the back deck plus building benches and flower boxes
from recycled solid oak pallets at the Museum of Natural History, building and donating a smoker and trailer to Feed ‘Em Soup, and building and outdoor shed made of wood and aluminum, remodeling the laundry and storage room, replacingan old shelving unit, and building new shelves to benefit TAILS Humane Society.

All of these requirements must be completed before their 18th birthday. This is quite an achievement as only about five percent of all Boy Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle. This makes it a prestigious award that is recognized by colleges and all branches of the armed forces.

The Eagle Court of Honor ceremony for eight new Eagle Scouts is unprecedented in the history of Troop 16 the Kishwaukee District of Boy Scouts of America. The ceremony lead by Troop 16 Scoutmaster Tim Ruetten and Eagle Scout Jason Ruetten, included the presentation of the Eagle scouts, guest speakers David Juday and State Representative Robert Pritchard, and special presentations of the Eagle Scout Medal, Eagle Scout Badge, a Mother’s pin, a Father’s tie tack, and a Mentor pin. Jim Lyon also presented the scouts with the Son’s of Union Veteran’s of the Civil War Certificate.

All of the Eagle scouts are Freshmen or Sophomores attending Sycamore High School, Genoa-Kingston High School, Aurora Central Catholic School, or Sacred Heart Classical Center in Rockford. All of them began their trail to Eagle when they joined scouting in Cub Scouts during Elementary School and experienced their trail to Eagle together in their 10 year scouting careers. Each Eagle Scout plans to remain active in scouting with Troop 16 and plans to experience the Boundary Waters High Adventure Trip this summer and attend the Philmont Scout Ranch in 2016.

Troop 16 is a strong troop with over 44 active scouts. Any boy aged 11 through 18 is invited to join; no past
scouting experience or background is required. Troop 16 meets most Sunday evenings from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm at the
Federated Church in Sycamore. For more information about Troop 16, please contact Scoutmaster Tim Ruetten at 815.895.4940.