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Community Corner

Plum Borough Scout Soars

Plum Borough High School senior recounts rising through the ranks to become Eagle Scout.

Though he was the youngest out of the five seniors this year in Boy Scout Troop 877—sponsored by Plum Creek Presbyterian Church—Will Kichtey was the first to make the ranks of Eagle Scout years ago.  He did so at age 16, having completed the required projects at age 15.

“Relatively speaking, that’s pretty early,” the Plum Borough High School senior said.

For his Eagle Scout service project, Kichtey built a new deck and benches at the East Suburban YMCA on Golden Mile Highway in Plum. He finished up the job late in the spring of 2008, he said.

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To become an Eagle Scout, a Boy Scout has to progress through all the other ranks of Scout, earn 21 merit badges, serve for six months in a troop leadership position and complete a service project for a religious or community organization.

The Scout must also participate in a Scoutmaster conference and complete an Eagle Scout board of review, according to the official Boy Scouts of America website.

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Though a couple of years have passed since Kichty has reached the rank of Eagle Scout, he said his achievement of that rank has followed him.

“No matter where I am, people understand that getting Eagle Scout is an accomplishment,” he said.

The inspiration to attain the rank, which is the highest one can achieve in Boy Scouts, comes in part from two inspirational figures in Kichtey’s life—his father, Michael Kichtey, and the older brother of fellow Eagle Scout Ryan Kozak .

“He was probably the biggest help,” Kichtey said of the older Kozak brother, Chris.

Kichtey joined Boy Scouts around the age of eight or nine. He not only followed in the footsteps of Chris Kozak, but in the footsteps of his father, who also became an Eagle Scout.

“He really wanted me to get Eagle too,” he said. “It was a 'Like father, like son,' kind of thing.”

One of his most memorable moments of scouting was the ceremony where he actually became an Eagle Scout. Called the court of honor, the event is a formal public ceremony which recognizes the Scout’s progression to the next rank.

In Kichtey’s case, the ceremony was delayed for a time—at the suggestion of Chris Kozak—so that it could be held at the Tooth of Time at Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M.

The Tooth of Time, which Kichtey described as “monumental”, is a rock formation that protrudes from a ridge in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the New Mexico portion of the Rocky Mountains.  

They were so high at the top of the “tooth,” Kichty said that they were actually above the clouds.

The ceremony took place at sunrise on his last day at Philmont. It’s something, Kichtey will likely never forget.

“I do not regret being in the Boy Scouts one bit,” he said. “One day if I have a son, maybe he’ll be interested in Scouting and we’ll go from there.”

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