Three more Eagles named in Troop 466
October 22, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Three Mount Si High School students are flying high after achieving Eagle Scout.
The recognition symbolizes the fact that Josh Yoker, Matthew Lynne and Stephen Hannan have demonstrated leadership, earned at least 21 merit badges, and organized service projects, in addition to fulfilling a list of other activities.
Eagle Scouts help build a woodshed at Tolt McDonald Park in Carnation.
Only the top two percent of scouts in the Boy Scouts of America reach Eagle Scout. Troop 466 has a higher rate of about 11 percent; eight of their 70 scouts have met the requirements for Eagle Scout.
Scoutmaster Doug McClelland will honor the three boys at the Preston Community Center Oct. 26. The Snoqualmie Valley School Board also will recognize the scouts with certificates.
All three boys are also members of the Order of the Arrow. Together, they repaired woodsheds, built benches and restored outdoor classrooms for the community.
But the service project was only one of many activities. The three Eagle Scouts hiked several 50-mile treks, camped for more than 100 nights and volunteered a total of 306 hours in the area.
The troop meets every Monday and plans one outdoor trip a month.
Yoker, a Mount Si High School junior, joined the scouts after fifth grade.
“I moved from Virginia and I had done Cub Scouts there,” Yoker said.
He said the troop did “a lot of hiking,” and “tons of backpacking,” especially by the Alpine Lakes area near Snoqualmie Pass.
For his Eagle Scout project, Yoker rebuilt and relocated two woodsheds at Tolt McDonald Park in Carnation.
“We use a lot of the same materials, but we had a lot of help with businesses in town,” Yoker said, adding that he finished the shed in two months with help from his troop and community members.
Yoker is the vice president of the Snoqualmie Valley Venturing Crew, and hiked to the summit of Mount Rainer this summer with the crew and fellow Eagle Scout Lynne. At Mount Si, he is involved with Amnesty International.
Hannan, a sophomore who participated in Cub Scouts while living in Denver, joined the scouts after moving to North Bend in 2001.
“It sounded fun with all of the different trips they did throughout the year,” Hannan said.
In May, he recruited about a dozen people to help him build benches for the Snoqualmie Railroad Museum.
“I had learned some carpentry skills through other projects,” Hannan said. “But I had a lot of help from people who were carpenters.”
Building the benches only took two days, but the planning required three weeks of work, Hannan said.
“I learned a lot of new leadership skills,” he said, noting time management and teamwork as valuable assets he ascertained.
Both Hannan and Lynne are BSA lifeguards. Lynne said he finds himself drawn to water. He scuba dives and boats when he’s not playing baseball or tennis for the Mount Si varsity team, or hiking with his troop.
“I joined the scouts in the first place because I wanted to follow my father’s path,” Lynne said. “He was an Eagle Scout in New Orleans.”
For his Eagle project, Lynne restored the outdoor classrooms and surrounding trails at Opstad Elementary.
“My little brother was at Opstad at the time,” Lynne said. “His teachers mentioned they couldn’t use (the classroom) because it was overgrown.”
With help from his troop, Lynne spent two days picking up trash, laying down bark and building podiums for the classroom during the storm of December 2006.
“It was really cold,” Lynne said. “We had heaters going outside.”
Of the 29 merit badges he earned, one concerning nuclear energy allowed him to take a class at the 2005 Boy Scout National Jamboree in Virginia with Yoker and Hannan.
“I was the 27th person in the world to receive it,” Lynne said. “We learned about radiation and gamma rays and where radiation usually comes from.”
His badge helped him in his Mount Si chemistry, meteorology and physics classes.
With their Eagle Scout titles underway, the three boys said they have given thought to their future. While Yoker plans to study forestry in college, Hannan hopes to design bikes and Lynne wants to go to the United States Coast Guard Academy.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. To comment on this story, go to www.snovalleystar.com.
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