Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The Highest Honor


I had the high honor of speaking at the court of honor for three new Eagle Scouts last week.
It was 13 years ago this month that Troop 798 came back to life. Blessed Sacrament Church in Midland had a strong Cub Scout pack, but too few boys were crossing over into Boy Scouts.
The troop began with the blessing of the church, a hundred bucks, five Boy Scouts and a rookie Scoutmaster – me.
It changed lives, perhaps none as much as mine. Over the past 13 years , 10 boys have become Eagles from Troop 798, earning Scouting's highest honor.




I was humbled when I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the court of honor for Adam Beach, Stephen Bischoff and Garett LaChance.




I talked about success – and how it's elusive, how it sometimes has to be redefined in light of reality, how we learn the most from our failures, and how, when we succeed once, we prepare ourselves to succeed again..
I have to judge Troop 798 to be a resounding success.


Eagle Scouts Adam Beach, Stephen Bischoff and Garett LaChance take the Eagle Pledge.


Junior Assistant Scoutmaster Patrick Sandoval speaks at the court of honor. I also had the honor of speaking at his court of honor; his two older brothers were among the first five Scouts in Troop 798, and also are Eagle Scouts.

A plaque names all the Troop 798 Eagles: John Ballard 1998; Jeffrey Sandoval 1998; Steven Sandoval 1998; Brendan Eash 1999; Eric Gustafson 1999; Erik Rakus 1999; Patrick Sandoval 2005; Adam Beach 2007; Garett LaChance 2007; Stephen Bischoff 2007.

(Photos by Katherine Ranzenberger)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How wonderfully the boys have grown. I think of pictures taken at a campground with the charter boys lashing a swingset and younger boys, now Eagles, enjoying the fun. Suceess indeed!
Fox from C-16-98

Anonymous said...

It is great to see the troop alive once again. I was one of four troop 798 scouts that received their Eagle in July of 1986..

David Boersma (myself)
Matt Mikols
Alan Nolan
Curt Johansen

Way to go Troop 798!!

nocoen said...

I was a member of 798 in the 1970's. Many fond memories of week long camping trips; weekends spent on yhe Mackinaw Trail and Summer Camp @ the Scout Reservation. Dick Johansen was the scout master. I still have a copy of the Dow Employee magazine covering a week long trip to the Quettico Provincial park. Great to hear 798 is back...
Brian Closs