Troop 10 Scouts receive Eagle honors

Jeffrey Johnson and Eric Schwendner of St. Patrick Catholic Church Boy Scout Troop 10 received their Eagle Rank awards at an Eagle Court of Honor Jan. 10 at the church on Crane Road in St. Charles. The awards were presented by Scout Master Jeff Ricketts and a mayoral proclamation was delivered by St. Charles Mayor Don DeWitte.

• Eighteen-year-old Jeffrey Johnson is a freshman at Western Illinois University. He is majoring in recreation, parks and tourism administration, as well as taking a class in the honors college.

He currently works at Westec, a student-run company at WIU that provides sound and lighting for events on campus.

Throughout high school at Aurora Central Catholic, he was involved in band and jazz band and was invited to play for the Illinois All Catholic Honor Band both junior and senior years. He received awards for excellence in both architecture and mechanical drafting.

He first became involved in scouts as a Tiger Cub while attending St. Patrick Catholic School and progressed through the ranks under the guidance of Sharon Clough and Marlene Romba until he earned his Arrow of Light award and crossed over into Troop 10 in fifth grade.

He was also awarded the Light of Christ and Parvuli Dei religious awards while in Cub Scouts.

Once in Boy Scouts, he earned the ranks of Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life and finally completed his Eagle Scout Board of Review in November 2009. He was awarded the Ad Altare Dei religious award.

Johnson has participated in several High Adventures while active in Troop 10. He rafted in West Virginia and backpacked a section of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia; rafted and backpacked in Glacier National Park in Montana; portaged (and did a little canoeing, too,) in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota; and backpacked and rafted in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. These experiences inspired Jeff to pursue a career in Adventure Based Recreation.

He served as an altar server at St. Patrick Parish from 2000-09 and was a member of the Peer Ministry Team and Retreat Leadership team throughout high school. He was instrumental in planning the first "Extreme Makeover: Faith Edition" in 2008 and planned the second installment in 2009.

He secured more than $5,000 in donations and supervised all five work days, in addition to planning the landscaping portion of the project.

He took on an ambitious Eagle Scout Service Project that involved clearing nonnative trees and plants from Harley Woods, a property owned by Campton Historical Agricultural Lands in association with Garfield Farm.

The project included cleaning up an old garbage dump on the property and preparing for a controlled burn. Nearly five pickup trucks full of scrap metal and broken glass were removed from the dump, and more than 50 volunteers turned up for the project, some on multiple days. More than 300 man hours were logged for the project.

He is the son of Pam and Tom Johnson and older brother of Scotty.

• Eighteen-year-old Eric Schwendner is a senior at Marmion Academy in Aurora. He has achieved the rank of Cadet Second Lieutenant in the JROTC program.

During his time there, Eric has participated on the tennis and math teams and has performed in the school musical each year. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has been named Cadet of the Year twice. He plans to attend college next fall and study engineering.

Schwendner also participates in the Peer Ministry youth program at St. Patrick Church. He has been a counselor at the Camp WOW faith-based summer camp for three years.

He first became involved in Scouts as a Tiger Cub in Pack 110 at St. Patrick School in St. Charles. He worked his way up the ranks, earning his Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Webelos and Arrow of Light badges in Cub Scouting, along with the Parvuli Dei and Light of Christ awards. He then crossed over to Boy Scout Troop 10 at St. Patrick Parish.

As a Boy Scout, he earned the ranks of Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life and, finally, Eagle. He also earned the Ad Altare Dei and Pope Pius XII religious awards.

Schwendner has enjoyed numerous campouts, attended summer camps and a High Adventure trip to the Boundary Waters, where his crew canoed 70 miles. He has attended the Thunderbird National Youth Leadership Training Program in Rochelle, Ill.

For his Eagle project, he led the construction of a storage shelving unit for Lazarus House in St. Charles. The project involved designing the layout of the shelves to fit the space, obtaining the necessary materials and organizing volunteers to help build and install the shelves. His mentor for the project was Rick Finke.

He is the son of Lee and Carla Schwendner and older brother of Emily.