Eagle Scout rank accomplished

Three Eagle Scouts from Perkins County Schools won’t get a ceremony to celebrate projects they’d completed for their Eagle Scout rank due to COVID-19.

Jacob Woodmancy, Deitrik Brueggeman and Ian Sihm are currently missing a milestone for their Eagle Scout careers. The ceremony to recognize them for their projects, originally scheduled to be April 22, has been postponed until further notice.

Had the ceremony not been postponed, the boys would be presenting a speech about their Scouting experience and sharing the Scout oath and Scout law.

Each scout completed a project to better a community organization other than Boy Scouts, such as the school, church, or other aspect of the community.

Woodmancy, who became an Eagle Scout in November 2019, focused his project on improving an area of the golf course to make it more visually appealing.

He received approval for his project in March of 2019 and completed his work over a couple of days in June with the help of a group of people.

The project focused on what once was an empty cement area near the clubhouse, which Woodmancy said looked kind of bare.

He added a planter, a bench, a trash can and a bag stand to the area. He also planted flowers, which he plans to do again this year.

“I feel like that really helped that area look prettier,” said Woodmancy.

Brueggeman, who became an Eagle Scout in the summer of 2019, worked on landscaping at the Perkins County Courthouse for his project.

Over the course of about a month, Brueggeman remodeled some of the landscaping around the building by removing rocks and replacing them with mulch and trimming the bushes. He also planted a few plants to improve the area.

Sihm, who was to be officially made an Eagle Scout at the Wednesday ceremony, repaired all the flagpoles at the cemetery for his Scout project.

He replaced the clips that hold the flags on and replaced the rope on some of the poles. With all the paperwork involved, along with having to attend cemetery board meetings and so on, Sihm worked on his project for a total of around six months.

Woodmancy, Brueggeman and Sihm have formed a close bond over their years together in Scouts. They have been friends since they started Cub Scouts in the first grade and over time have earned many of their Scout badges together.

They each hold memories of camping as some of their favorite memories together while in the Scouts, but Sihm says no memory sticks out to him as his favorite because all of them are equally great.

They share a disappointment that the ceremony will be postponed, but agree they have bigger things to worry about right now.

“I don’t like that it’s postponed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Sihm said.