ZILLAH — The Class of 2009 at Zillah High School will be include a small cadre of young men who have made a visible difference in their community as they worked toward the achievement of Scouting’s highest rank, Eagle.
Cody Dunbar, 18, Blake Bergener, 19, Glen Porter, 18, and Dallin Mansfield, 18, are all members of Zillah Scout Troop 595, and they’ve all been involved in Scouting in the troop since they were 12 years old.
To reach Eagle rank, each one chose a project that would benefit the community, then took responsibility for seeing that the project would be completed.
Dunbar built and erected a hitting wall for the tennis court at Zillah Middle School, then planted four trees around the tennis court and four more around the baseball field.
Bergener installed a paved patio and picnic table at Adams Park.
Porter’s project was preparation for and installation of a concrete basketball court at Loges Park.
Mansfield installed a barbecue and surrounding masonry at Loges Park.
Kyle Tynan, also an Eagle Scout, will also be graduating with the Class of 2009, but he’s in a different troop, they said.
Tynan’s project was installation of an irrigation system at the Zillah Fishing Pond.
The four Eagles from Troop 595 participated in the Zillah community breakfast on Memorial Day, serving as color guard to begin the event.
Three of the four have plans for college this fall, and the fourth, Bergener, said he’ll be relocating to Houston, Texas, to begin his mission there.
Any time a Scout reaches Eagle rank it puts him in rather exclusive company, but for Mansfield, the achievement is especially significant.
He is an enrolled member of the Yakama Nation, and he is the first member of that tribe to reach Eagle rank, he said.
He is also only the second Native American in the Pacific Northwest to do so.
The rank of Eagle was first awarded in 1912, and since then, it has been earned by about a million and a half young men.
It is a rank that is held for life.
Some of the more prominent Americans to have earned the rank are Neil Armstrong, former president Gerald Ford, former Washington Governor Gary Locke, now Secretary of Commerce, and renowned movie director and producer Steven Spielberg.