Nine local youths achieve Eagle Scout rank at Rancho Santa Fe ceremony

Nine local Boy Scouts achieved the highest rank within the organization, Eagle Scout, at a ceremony at the Performing Arts Center in Rancho Santa Fe on June 17. Honored as Eagles were Miles Ahles, Jack Hanlon, Peter Kuntz, DJ Magee, Jonas Neichin, Will Shepherd, Christian Stiker, Nick Stiker and Tanner Stiker.

Scoutmaster Jim Depolo presided over the ceremony, which featured an invocation by Pastor Jack Baca, an explanation of the meaning of the Eagle Scout badge by Eagle advisors Ken Dunford and Steve Ahles, and the official Eagle Oath administered by former Scoutmaster Glenn Doshay. Parents were invited on-stage, as mothers presented their sons with the Eagle badge, and fathers placed the Eagle kerchief and slide around their son’s neck. There was a light-hearted moment as the group waited for the Stiker parents, who had to place pins and kerchiefs on all three of their sons. (This is the first time in San Diego that triplets have ever earned their Eagle Scout rank at the same time.)

To achieve the rank of Eagle, each of the Scouts had to plan and lead a significant service project, which benefited the community and allowed the Scout to demonstrate leadership of others. Projects ranged from building storage racks for animal crates at the Helen Woodward Center, to benches for the Ronald McDonald house courtyard at Children’s Hospital, to a stone firepit at the Arroyo campgrounds in Rancho Santa Fe.

Troop 766 is composed of Scouts from Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, and Solana Beach, and is sponsored by the Village Church.