Jackson VerSteeg Receives Eagle Scout Award

Jackson at his Eagle Court of Honor

 Jackson VerSteeg from Troop 398 was awarded the highest honor a young scout can achieve--the Eagle--during a Court of Honor held November 9.
   Conducting the ceremony was Don Parsons, District Scout Chairman of the Gold Country District.  He commented on the excellent flag ceremony which kicked off the meeting, as well as a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem by Caden Webb. He also mentioned how earning an Eagle Award has developed leadership qualities in Jackson.
  Don Daley followed with a comment that leadership in scouting leads only toward the best, and that is service to God and to our fellowmen.
  Remarks by YM President Adam Sroufe included stories that exemplified Jackson's bravery and obedience.  A scout learns to be "sober," which in this case means patient and long suffering, he said.  He mentioned that Jackson is interested in genealogy and that led to his Eagle project. (See pictures below.)

  Garth Johnson's comments included a note that Jackson excelled in everything he did. One of the requirements for the Eagle award is to earn 21 merit badges.  Jackson earned 32!

Jackson repeats the Scout Oath while his proud parents Eric and Marie VerSteeg look on. The men behind them are part of the "Eagles' Nest," those who have previously received the award. Don Daley is at the pulpit.

Woodbridge Cemetery Revitalization and Documentation was the theme of Jackson's Eagle Project, part of which involved cleaning the dirty and overgrown cemetery and exposing headstones so they could be read.  The other part was photographing and documenting headstones so they could become a part of the "Find a Grave" project which posts pictures of headstones on the Internet to help people find deceased relatives. Over 60 people of all ages came to help with the project. Jackson put in hours of work before the event mapping the cemetery, preparing packets for those who would be photographing, and giving them a jump drive on which to save the images.  He recently received an email from a man thanking him for helping find an ancestor for whom he had been searching 20 years!  (Click on the above Eagle Project collage to see it full size.)