By Mark Ambrogi
The number of those being honored as Eagle Scouts was described by more than one of the honorees as “crazy.”
Zach Badger, one of the eight being given Eagle Scout badges, said he has never seen more than four get their Eagle Scout badge in one night.
“It’s special for our troop and shows that the community outreach is alive and well,” said Luther Rice, another who earned the Eagle Scout badge.
Troop 358 Scoutmaster James Beck said to have eight at one time is very unusual. Eagle Scout is the highest achievement in Boy Scouts. The Eagle Scouts were honored at Troop 358 Court of Honor on Jan. 4 at St. Alphonsus Liquori Catholic Church in Zionsville.
“We are the largest troop in the North Star district and one of the largest in Central Indiana,” Beck said. “We’ve been chartered since 1923 so we’re in our 93rd year of existence. To this day, we have 180 Eagle Scouts who have earned that rank in the troop so far.”
For 2015, Beck said the troop had its largest number of Eagle Scout badges awarded ever with 12. Four were honored in the first half of the year.
“A typical year for this troop would be six to eight Eagle Scouts,” Beck said. “For a normal troop, it would be one to three.”
Beck said the troop services Zionsville, Whitestown, Lebanon and the western side of Carmel.
The eight scouts, Badger, Rice, Harrison Davis, Brian O’Leary, Jesper Wiebke, Burk Evans, Logan Witt and Matthew Bricker, earning the honor on Jan. 4 were all from Zionsville. Davis is a Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School senior. The others are from Zionsville Community High School. Wiebke, Bricker and Witt are juniors and the other four are seniors.
To achieve Eagle Scout, the scouts did non-profit community service projects.
“They range from 75 to several hundred hours of community service per project,” Beck said.
For instance, O’Leary’s Eagle Scout project was to install a flagpole in Lions Park. Rice’s related project was to build a brick patio around the flag pole.
All the Eagle Scouts used help from fellow scouts and their parents for their projects.
