Eagle Scouts, who received their awards between 1944 ad 2012 share in a ‘Gathering of Eagles’ candlelighting at the start of Sarurday’s service, here watch Zachary Daniels add a flame. STAFF PHOTO/ROBERT BAKER

BY ROBERT L. BAKER

Wyoming County Press Examiner

Three young men achieved the apex of boy scouting when they were presented with Eagle awards Saturday afternoon.

Zachary Daniels, Justin Hill, and James Proulx became the 86^th, 87^th and 88^th Eagles from the reconstituted Boy Scout Troop 518 of Tunkhannock.

Each was introduced by Scoutmaster Brina Burke and stood before an overflow crowd of wellwishers at the Tunkhannock United Methodist Church while sharing a bit of themselves and the future that lay ahead.

Burke said it was a great day for the community, indeed the world, to have three more men to commit to the highest ideals of personal behavior.

Following the presentation of colors by the troop’s color guard, Burke asked for all Eagle Scouts in attendance to come forward for a ‘Gathering of Eagles’ candlelighting.

One by one, 14 men who had received scouting’s highest accomplishment between 1944 and 2012 came forward and introduced themselves.

They included Daniels’ grandfather William Davis, the most seasoned of the group, but also included Tunkhannock United Methodist Church Pastor Peter Geschwindner, who became an Eagle in New Jersey, and Wyoming County President Judge Russell Shurtleff who became an Eagle decades earlier when a scout in Waverly.

Shurtleff serves as assistant scoutmaster for Troop 518 and gave the boys a charge from Scouting.

He pronounced them “worldly beyond their years” and said “If you really want to know someone else’s children you ought to spend 15 days with them on a wilderness trip” as he had done with the boys when they all went to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

“I can tell you without hesitation these are truly standouts,” Judge Shurtleff said.

In giving a charge from the school, Tunkhannock swim coach Tim Mislevy said that he had first met Proulx and Hill in fifth grade where they were superlative math students and by ninth grade would become members of the Tiger swim team.

Both were quiet, respectful, unassuming, and never accepting mediocrity from themselves, Mislevy said.

He noted that Hill is still a little quiet, but Proulx not so anymore and had indeed become a sparkplug on this year’s swim team.

Mislevy said that after talking with Daniels’ soccer coach, he knew that all three boys shared the same goals, “and it’s nice to see we are teaching what is right.”

Geschwindner gave a charge from the church and said he had only known the boys since arriving in Tunkhannock 18 months earlier but pulled from his 1962 Boy Scout Handbook to share a story about the words “In God We Trust” that appear on the Lincoln penny.

“They are 12 little letters on a little coin, but they have great power as these boys have discovered,” Geschwindner said. “Always remember who you are and whose you are.”

Tunkhannock Area School Board President Martin Migliori gave the charge from the community.

As Hill’s former scoutmaster in Troop 336 in Center Moreland, Migliori spoke of the journey from being a Tiger Cub to Eagle, and noted the boys’ leadership not just in soccer, swimming and cross country, but they were also musicians.

“Can you imagine a football game without a halftime performance, or a parade without a band?” Migliori asked.

He said the youths would be counted on to continue their leadership.

“Continue to be involved and never stop giving,” he said.

Finally, Michael Hill, Justin’s father and the boys’ youth soccer coach starting about a decade earlier when they were coined the ‘Mighty Munchkins,’ gave a charge from athletics.

Although he noted their soccer teams sometimes achieved gold, “None of that really mattered.”

“What matters is the sense of fair play you all engaged in and you always followed the rules,” Hill said.  “I hope you young men have the pleasure one day of coaching your own kids.”

Following parts of the Eagle Scout Challenge being read by different Eagles in the audience, and the administration of the Eagle Scout oath by Burke, those in attendance saw a power point presentation of each of the scouts followed by parents’ presentations and in turn pinnings from the Eagles on each of their parents.

The cremony ended with the playing of ‘Taps’ by Eagle Nathan Hill and his newly minted Eagle younger brother Justin offering an echo out of view.

It was a fitting end to assistant scoutmaster Shurtleff’s earlier admonition to “Continue to live your lives so that when others see you or hear you they will be inspired.”