Journey Ends As 6 Become Eagle Scouts

PLANT CITY - There is a long and rigorous road to travel in the quest to reach the top level of scouting, Eagle Scout.

An Eagle Scout must have a minimum of 21 merit badge awards, complete a community service project including independently raising all money for the effort and pass a board of review before his 18th birthday. Only 5 percent of boys who join a Boy Scout troop manage to earn that exalted rank.

Many start their quest as Cub Scouts.

Six new scouts from Troop 733, sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church of Plant City, recently completed that journey. The names of the new Eagles - Johnnie Bryars Byrd III, Ryan Christopher Campbell, Robert Theodore Carty, Thomas Pace Everett, John Henry Kenney IV and Patrick Thomas Shugerts - were inscribed on a bronze eagle sculpture at the church at 404 W. Reynolds St.

They have plenty of company - the troop has nurtured a total of 67 Eagle Scouts in its 19-year history.

Honoring the scouts' stellar accomplishments at the May 17 Court of Honor induction ceremony were scouting officials and dignitaries including keynote speaker U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, who presented a Special Congressional Recognition certificate to each Eagle.

Here's the background of the new Eagles:

•Family and friends know Byrd as Bryars. He is a 16-year-old member of the Plant City High School varsity swim team, the National Honor Society and the school Academic Team who, with an approximate grade-point average of more than 4.2, is an Advanced Placement student.

The commitment of his pastor and wife, the Rev. Ron and Cindy Churchill, to Steppin' Stone Farm, a Lithia residence for at-risk teenage girls where Cindy Churchill is the executive director, inspired Byrd to devote his Eagle community service project to the farm. He was told the facility needed the creation of a serenity garden as a private setting for visiting parents and their daughters. The project involved clearing out dense and heavy brush, landscaping a garden and adding benches.

Byrd likes football and water activities. He is a lifeguard at the Plant City Family YMCA and is involved with an annual surf camp of Christian ministry through Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Plant City.

"I really wish I could do that be in or on the water every day, so it's no wonder I want to try for the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.," he said.

He has three sisters: Melane, who is a Navy fighter pilot; Sherer, who is married to a Navy fighter pilot; and Amanda, who is studying criminology at the University of South Florida. His mother, Melane, is president and an original founding member of the Plant City Federated Republican Women's Club. His father, Johnnie B. Byrd Jr., is a Plant City attorney and former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

•Campbell, 17, is a veteran hiker and camper. His Eagle Scout community service project evolved out of his love of baseball. As a Big League team player for Plant City Little League who has played on several travel teams, he chose to design and construct two handicapped parking spots for Mike Sansone Community Park off Park Road, including a wheelchair-accessible walkway leading to the baseball fields. He hopes this will be a step toward enabling the Plant City Little League to start a Challenger League for players with special needs.

Designing his first Scout racing Pinewood Derby car ignited Campbell's passion for automotive design. He wants to pursue a design career in the automotive industry. He is a rising senior at Plant City High School.

"There's no question that scouting forges a lasting bond between father and sons. All my three boys, Ryan and his brothers Mike and Justin, have participated in scouting. I would recommend involvement to every father," said Chris Campbell, a general construction contractor.

Ryan Campbell's mother, Patti, has been a Cub Scout den leader.

•Carty, son of Robert and Lynda Carty, is one of the four in his troop who achieved the rank of Eagle Scout by the time he was 16. He attends Plant City High, where he is in the Key Club and is in the top 5 percent of his class with a 4.48 GPA. He has also been a volunteer soccer coach for the Plant City Parks and Recreation Department.

As a member of St. Clement Catholic Church, 1104 N. Alexander St., Plant City, Carty wanted his Eagle Project to benefit his church. He beautified the grotto area through landscaping, replaced a broken stone bench and created a retaining wall for prayer candles.

His mother and Kenney's mother, Meri Kenney, were Cub Scout den leaders together, and both quoted the poem "The Eagle Scout" by S. Kurtz Hingley as a prelude to the presentation of community awards to the Troop 733 Eagles.

The poem, written in 1931, was published in the Quaker City Scout Newsletter and republished in the May 1931 edition of Scouting Magazine.

An excerpt:

"A fond mother watches her boy where he stands

Apart from his comrades tonight

As they place on his camp-battered tunic, a badge.

An Eagle, the emblem of Right.

Yes it's only a pin, just an Eagle Scout badge,

But the heart that's beneath it is true,

And will throb to the last for the things which are good;

A lesson for me - and for you."

•Everett, 18, is a 2008 Plant City High School graduate who is known to his friends as Pace. He began scouting in 1996 as a first-grader. One of his Cub Scout den leaders was Patti Campbell.

Like his friend from his Cub Scout days, Everett has been playing baseball from an early age and continues to play on a local men's adult softball team.

Holding many positions of leadership within the troop, including patrol leader, Everett received top honors in marksmanship at Boy Scouts of America Camp Raven Knob in Virginia.

The Eagle community project he selected was installing a new play set for St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 302 Carey St., Plant City. He raised money through business donations and holding yard sales. Everett dismantled the old set and completely rebuilt the play area. Because of his hard work and generous donors, he was also able to make a large monetary donation to the church.

He is active in FFA and shows livestock at the Florida Strawberry Festival. He has "taken every agriculture class offered by Plant City High School. Now he plans to attend Hillsborough Community College and pursue studies in agricultural science," said his mother, Tracy Everett. His father is Ron Everett.

•Kenney, 16, is the son of John and Meri Kenney. His mother was his Cub den leader and is still involved in scouting as the advancement chairwoman who helps with merit badges. "My son has many accomplishments, and I know some of them in high school have come as a direct result of his work on merit badges," she said. He is Troop 733's top badge recipient, with 34 merit badges.

A member of the Plant City High School Honor Society, president-elect of the Debate Club and an active Academic Team member, he particularly loves history and political science classes. "There isn't anything I don't like about school, but scouting has taught me that if I start something, I need to finish it...no half measures for me, I just have to go for it," he said.

His Eagle Project consisted of reroofing the Christian education house at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, where he is a member. It took 229 hours to complete the job with the help of other volunteers.

•Shugerts is a 16-year-old AP student at Plant City High who comes from a family with a tradition of scouting involvement. His older brother Ryan is an Eagle Scout from the same troop, and his father, James, was scoutmaster during most his sons' years of scout training. Steve Hahn has been the scoutmaster since March 31, 2007.

Choosing a project from his own parish, St. Clement Catholic, he tackled the job of restoring the Knights of Columbus meeting portable, including replacement of rotting wood, wood patching and other repairs. Steel doors and metal steps were also restored and painted.

The Shugerts family has been involved in Boy Scouts of America summer camps every year including the National Jamboree, held every four years in Virginia.

"We've had the opportunity to do things and go places we never would have been able to if we weren't in scouting. Time goes by so quickly, I've cherished every moment," said the proud dad and former scoutmaster. Shugerts' mom, Deborah, added with a laugh, "Don't forget scout mothers, who have done an awful lot of laundry after camping trips and lots of cooking for scouting events as well."