Louisburg Scout earns Eagle rank

By Molly Heavner, mollyheavner@miconews.com

Cody King

Cody King, 16, a Louisburg High School student and member of Boy Scout Troop 100 of Paola, was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout at his Court of Honor on May 3 at the First Christian Church in Louisburg.

“I felt pretty good,” King said. “It’s a great honor to have the rank of Eagle Scout.”

Approximately two out of every 100 boys who join Boy Scouts earn this highest rank, according to an e-mail from Patty Trull, Troop 100 scoutmaster.

In order to achieve the Eagle rank, King was required to complete an extensive service project. He chose to landscape the front of the Paola Community Center.

“It took about 135 hours, and it was pretty difficult because I had to get approval from different groups from the city,” King said.

The groups, King said, consisted of the Community Center board of directors, the Master Gardeners and the Ursuline Sisters.

With assistance from the Scouts and adults of Troop 100, Trull said King’s project involved planting a variety of trees and plants, installing 140 feet of steel edging and covering the area with 10 cubic yards of hardwood mulch.

To achieve the rank of Eagle, a scout must continually advance in rank through completion of leadership roles, merit badges and performing community service projects. In addition to the required 12 merit badges and nine optional merit badges, King earned an additional 10 merit badges for a total of 31. This qualifies him for bronze and gold palm awards to go with his Eagle rank, something King said he did accidentally.

“I wasn’t paying attention to how many Eagle merit badges I had,” he said. “I just got the extra badges done before I got my eagle-required merit badges done.”

He has served in many leadership roles for the troop, including senior patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, patrol leader, assistant patrol leader and chaplain’s aide. He is currently the troop’s Order of the Arrow representative and plans to continue his work with the troop.

“I want to try to be in scouts until I’m 18, then try to become an adult leader for them,” King sad.

King was elected into the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s National Honor Society, last summer.

King will be a junior at LHS. He is the son of Robert and Pamela King of Louisburg.