Dalton achieves Eagle Scout rank

By Andy Brown
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: March 7, 2016

Louisburg High School junior Tommy Dalton (middle) received his Eagle Scout Award during his Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Feb. 20 at First Christian Church. Dalton presented scout master Rodney Kasitz (left) with a mentor pin, while fellow scout master Dave Rogers (right) was the master of ceremonies.

Tommy Dalton has taken his final step in his long journey to becoming an Eagle Scout.

Tommy, a junior at Louisburg High School, received his Eagle Scout Award during the Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Feb. 20 at First Christian Church. Eagle is the highest rank given in the Boy Scouts of America.

“I am pretty proud of it,” he said. “Going through the process, I am almost humbled by it. It teaches you to be a leader and I put in everything I had into it.”

During the court of honor, scout master Dave Rogers was the master of ceremonies and John Cisetti gave Tommy his Eagle Charge. Tommy also presented his Parent Pin to his parents Greg and Shelly Dalton.

Dalton also gave his mentor pin to scout master Rodney Kasitz, who has helped guide him on his journey.

“I remember when I was a lot younger and we went on our first camp out and I wasn’t all that thrilled about camping out,” Dalton said. “I couldn’t sleep and I got up and saw (Kasitz) around the fire so I went and talked to him. He basically just told me to stick with it and he calmed a lot of my fears. He has helped me a lot along the way.”

Another requirement in becoming an Eagle Scout is to perform a service project in the community. The project is designed to have the scout plan, organize, lead and manage the project.

Tommy Dalton built shelves like this one for the Agape Food Pantry as part of his service project to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

Tommy’s first idea was to construct shelves for the Agape Food Pantry and also hold a food drive. Unfortunately, the food drive was unable to happen, but his idea of shelving was approved by the Paola district.

“I just noticed when I was there that they didn’t have enough shelving to store some of the items, so I thought it would be beneficial for them,” Tommy said.

Tommy, who is member of Troop 101, earned 24 merit badges on his way to receiving his award and 21 is required to receive Eagle rank. There were a few that took several days to accomplish.

He earned a Personal Fitness and Personal Management badge that requires the scout to create a 90-day log for each.

“A lot of Eagle Scouts probably have more than I do because a lot of them go to summer camps to get those badges,” Tommy said. “I haven’t been able to do that because of football and weights, but it does take a lot of time to get those.”

Approximately 54,000 scouts have received the Eagle Scout Award this year, which is the fourth largest Eagle class in history. More than 2 million have become Eagle Scouts since 1912.