Liam Arnott Huber

Liam Arnott Huber, 17, of La Crescenta, earned the highest advancement award the Boy Scouts of America offers to Scouts, the Eagle Scout Award. In recognition of this accomplishment, an Eagle Scout Court of Honor was held for him in May at Lincoln Elementary School, where Liam began his scouting journey.

A member of Troop 319, Liam is one of approximately 4% of all Boy Scouts who attain the Eagle rank. Each candidate must earn 21 merit badges and successfully complete a community, church or synagogue related service project to earn his Eagle.  Liam earned a total of 36 merit badges and completed his Eagle project by coordinating and hosting a community blood drive in cooperation with the American Red Cross. Liam’s own medical struggles with a chronic, autoimmune bleeding disorder, as well as his desire to rally his community around a humanitarian cause, inspired the project that was held at Dunsmore Elementary School in September. His successful drive collected 57 units of blood – enough blood to potentially save the lives of 171 people.

Liam joined Cub Scouts with Pack 310 as a Wolf Scout in the second grade.  He progressed through the Cub Scout program, earning its highest award, the Arrow of Light, before bridging to Boy Scout Troop 319. Liam held several positions within the Troop including senior patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader and three terms as troop historian. He especially loved backpacking with the troop and has logged over 300 miles of hiking, including a 10-day, 90-mile backpack trip in Philmont, New Mexico last summer.

Liam finished his junior year at Crescenta Valley High School where he was active in the Theatre Dept., Comedy Sportz and the National Honor Society. He is also co-president of the Science and Medicine Academy.

BSA Honors Scoutmaster

Dr. Michael Devine, Scoutmaster of Troop 507 for 10 years at St. Bede’s Catholic Church in La Cañada, was honored in May with the National Eagle Scout Association Outstanding Eagle Scout Award. The recognition was part of the 54th Annual Eagle Scout Banquet. The award recognizes Eagle Scouts who have brought great honor to the highest rank of the Boy Scouts of America through their personal and professional contributions at the local, state and regional levels.

Professionally Devine retired as a NCIS Special Agent. As a United States Naval Reserve captain, he is the deputy chief staff officer for Inspections. In addition, he was honored as the San Diego County Child Abuse Investigator of the Year for his work protecting the welfare of children.

Devine has also volunteered his time as Scoutmaster for a Jamboree Troop (804) that attended the 2010 National Jamboree at Fort AP Hill in Virginia and a Jamboree Troop (C411) at the 2013 Jamboree at Bechtel Summit in West Virginia. He was recently selected to lead a troop from the United States to the 2015 World Jamboree that will be held in Japan.

Two hundred and seventy Eagle Scouts from the Class of 2013 were honored from the San Gabriel Valley at the banquet. Eagle Scout class of 2013 honorees from Troop 507 included Makoto Inouye, Kyle Thomas, Samuel Weinberger, Brent Hamada and Jamie Walker.

Allison Zadravecz

The Girl Scout Council of Greater Los Angeles recognized Allison Zadravecz recently at the Gold Award ceremony at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Allison completed her Girl Scout Gold Award project, “Growing Friendships at Hope Gardens,” by leading a summer camp for the children at Hope Gardens Family Center. Hope Gardens is a transitional living shelter for homeless women and their children. Working with children ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, she taught them fun and educational crafts, activities, and games over the course of five themed weeks of camp. Her activities helped the children develop important life skills and inspired them with memories that they will never forget. She donated a book of her activities and supplies and toys to Hope Gardens so that her project could be sustained.

Allison’s favorite part of her Gold Award project was the friendships and special memories that she created with the children. She hopes to have motivated them to achieve success in their future lives through her project.

Allison will be a senior next year at Crescenta Valley High School. She was vice president and section leader of string orchestra, publicist/secretary of Autism Speaks Club, and a member of the California Scholarship Federation and French Club. She looks forward to serving more leadership positions next year at school.

Allison has been an active Girl Scout for 12 years, earning her Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards. Allison received the Violet Richardson Award this year from the Soroptimist International Club of Glendale for her service to women and children. She plans to attend a private, four-year university and pursue a field that involves math, computer science or engineering.

Cub Scouts Bridge to Next Level

Eighteen accomplished boys from La Crescenta Cub Scout Pack 360 earned Cub Scout’s highest award, the Arrow of Light, which was presented to them recently in a ceremony held in the Dunsmore Elementary School auditorium.

Calling themselves the “The Dragon Patrol” and “The Scorpion Patrol,” the boys from these two dens, under the guidance of den leaders Frank Kim and Ron Stickar, completed up to 20 different activity badges in skill areas such as outdoors, community, technology and mental/physical fitness.

The Arrow of Light Award displays a universal symbol for the sun and, below it, an arrow. The seven rays of the sun represent each day of the week and remind each boy to do their best each day as they follow the arrow that leads to Boy Scouting.

Upon receiving their Arrow of Light award, each boy walked across a wooden bridge, embossed with each word of the Scout Law, “bridging” across it to representatives from various Boy Scout troops. Boy Scouts from each troop replaced their Cub Scout neckerchief with one from their troop as they welcomed them into the next level of scouting.

Pictured Below: On the Arrow of Light bridge are Nathan Alexander, Mitchell Doom, Jun-Huyn Kim, Sun Jun Lee, Jack Myers, James Phagoo, Nathan Milley, Michael Rhyoo, Gavin Ventura, Vincent Stickar, George Kamar, Adam Sharp, Andrew Ortiz, Eric Kruegermann, Evan Aceytuno, Andrew Kim, Ian Baik and Brendan Seo. Also pictured are den chiefs Ricky Phagoo, Alexander Aceytuno and Ethan Sharp along with den leaders Ron Stickar and Frank Kim.