Huckvale Earns Prestigious Eagle Scout Award

Camas Senior, Luke Huckvale, was honored Thursday night with the presentation of his hard-earned Eagle Scout Award, which is the highest honor a youth can earn in the Boy Scouts of America.

Huckvale, 18, of Camas Boy Scout Troop 694, entered the program seven years ago, and had to earn six rank advancements to achieve the Eagle honor. The ranks are Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, and Eagle. Within each rank, the requirements become more challenging, and require numerous tasks, merit badges, service hours, and leadership roles.

To achieve the Eagle rank, a youth must complete a challenging, and often rigorous service project that benefits the local community.

“It’s designed to demonstrate leadership, and challenge the young man,” said Ron Shake, a local District advancement chairman. “It’s designed to be hard.”

For his project, Huckvale gathered volunteers to clean up and repair several damaged and vandalized tombstones at the Fisher Cemetery in Vancouver. The group also repaired a fence which was damaged by fallen trees, and built a wooden bench, which was placed at the war memorial at the site.

Each Eagle Scout also has the opportunity to select a mentor, a person who guided the scout along the journey. Huckvale chose Scott Murphy as his mentor, and honored him Thursday evening.

“I chose Scott because he was there to not only help me with my scouting needs, but also other needs I had like emotional physical and educational needs,” said Huckvale.

Huckvale also expressed what he loved most about scouting.

“I like the brotherhood and loyalty that it brought between my friends and I,” he said. “And I loved Camp Meriwether the most because it was just a very good environment for doing everything scouting and there was a beach so that made it ten times better.

“Regarding tonight, I’m glad that all of my work finally came to fruition, and it was especially good to see how many people cared enough about me to come to my court of honor and support me.”

Nationwide, only about 5 percent of scouts earn the rank of Eagle. Since the organization’s inception, a total of 2 million boys have earned Eagle.

To learn more about Boy Scouts, visit www.cpcbsa.org