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Eagle soars at 15

PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLEEN MERZ
Anthony Howell, 15, will become an Eagle Scout Saturday. Most scouts don’t earn that honor until they’re 18 or 19, but Anthony actually completed his requirements last year, when he was 14.

At only 15, Anthony Howell of Mattituck has earned his Eagle Scout ranking. He actually completed the work last year, when he was 14.

Typically, Eagle Scouts are 18 or 19 and high school seniors or college freshmen.

“You’re able to achieve it if you really work on it,” he said in an interview about his achievement. “I work on a schedule,” he said.

That schedule meant working hard in junior high school to complete Eagle Scout requirements because he knew that, in high school, a lot of other activities would be demanding his time. The high school freshman is a member of the track and wrestling teams and a Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet.

On Saturday, at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Aquebogue, young Mr. Howell will celebrate his achievement at a Court of Honor with his fellow Troop 39 members. The church he has attended since he was a young child was the site of his Eagle Scout project — the creation of a prayer garden, with the help of 15 troop members. It was his way of giving back to the church, he said. Besides completing the prayer garden last year, Mr. Howell had to earn 21 merit badges and demonstrate leadership within the troop. He did that by serving first as a patrol leader and currently as scribe.

He came up through the ranks of scouting, starting as a Cub Scout with the tiger rank and earning the Cub Scout highest rank, Arrow of Light. In 2007, Mr. Howell earned Den Chief training. The following year he received Boy Scout National Youth Leadership Training to become a counselor at Camp Yawgoog in Rhode Island and then at scout camp in Baiting Hollow. This year, he was selected by his troop to join the Order of the Arrow and will attend the 100-year celebration of scouting at the National Jamboree in Virginia in 2011.

JULIE LANE