Four former May Watts students earn Eagle Scout ranks
Four BSA Troop 75 Scouts who met in first grade Cubs Scouts recently stopped by their old school, May Watts Elementary in Naperville, for a visit. The four teens have achieved Eagle Scout honors.
Principal Brian LeCrone met with the boys who are now seniors in high school. He told them how impressed he was with their positive involvement in the community while they walked the hallways to their old kindergarten classroom.
Three of them had the same teacher, Linda Doranski, who eagerly greeted the boys.
Looking like giants sitting at the small desks, the boys reminisced about their days at May Watts, explained their Eagle projects, and talked about plans after high school.
• Sean Brennan designed original helmet and bat box plans for the Naperville Park District that are installed at the Knoch Park baseball fields. Scouts spent a Saturday at his home assembling and staining the boxes. Brennan has played baseball since kindergarten and currently plays on the Metea Valley High School and Wheatland Ducks baseball teams. He saw a need to keep baseball equipment organized and safe in the dugout.
The Naperville Park District stated that Brennan showed great energy, leadership and a positive attitude throughout the project, naming him the Naperville Youth Service Award recipient of the year.
At BSA Troop 75, Brennan served as den chief, assistant quartermaster, patrol leader and Chaplain's aide. Brennan is a senior at Metea Valley High School playing baseball and performing trumpet in band. An Illinois State Scholar, he plans to major in mechanical engineering at Purdue University.
• Evan Frazier led a team of Scouts that built and stained two large picnic tables for May Watts Elementary School. The tables are located on the north side of the school giving teachers a place to eat, kids a place to sit and play games, and parents a place to watch their kids' after-school activities. The picnic tables are near the open fields where Frazier began playing soccer in kindergarten. Frazier was inspired by the idea of wanting to do something for his elementary school.
"I wanted to give back to the school and make a difference," Frazier said. Frazier served as historian and patrol leader with BSA Troop 75.
One highlight during his time with Troop 75 was attending Sea Base High Adventure in the Florida Keys last summer. Frazier is a senior at Benet Academy who is involved in the environmental club and varsity soccer. In 2019, the soccer team won the 3A state championship and he recently received a Senior Varsity Award. An Illinois State Scholar, he plans to study accounting in college.
• Aidan Jones, whose love of reading and writing began at May Watts, wanted to give back to the school by building two little free libraries. One is free-standing in the teachers' lounge at May Watts Elementary School and the other was installed in front of the school for the kids to use. Jones worked with his previous Cubmasters, which were his dad and Steve Petrille, to create blueprints and a family friend helped select and cut the wood. Jones reviewed the plans with a group of Scouts who assembled the two little free libraries on a Saturday at his home. Jones won the Young Author's contest almost every year while at May Watts and Hill Middle School.
Jones was very involved with BSA Troop 75 serving as recruiter and Senior Patrol Leader; a highlight was going to Sea Base High Adventure in the Florida Keys last summer. A senior at Benet Academy, he has been involved in cross country and track and is the chair for Muse, Benet's writing club. Jones plans to attend college and pursue a career in writing.
• Carter Wijangco, who began fishing with his grandfather at 5 years old and later enrolled in fishing programs with the DuPage County Forest Preserve, knew he wanted to do an Eagle Scout project related to fishing. Familiar with several Forest Preserve lakes, he followed a blueprint to build fish cribs. These cribs help create an underwater habitat, improving the ecosystem. Scouts gathered at his home to build the fish cribs that were eventually dumped into Rice Lake and Round Meadow Lake of the DuPage County Forest Preserve. Wijangco served as den chief and assistant quartermaster while in BSA Troop 75. Wijangco is a senior at Metea Valley who participated in band and wrestling. He travels extensively to attend bass fishing tournaments and has won the Bassmaster Junior National Championship. He plans to major in digital media at Drury University in Missouri, receiving an academic and sport scholarship to be on their bass fishing team.
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the nation's largest and most prominent values-based youth development organizations. The Eagle Scout Award is BSA's highest advancement award. Nationally, only 8% of all Boy Scouts attain Eagle rank.
Brennan, Frazier, Jones and Wijangco are four of six Scouts who achieved Eagle rank in 2021 in Troop 75.
The four teens will be recognized at an Eagle Court of Honor at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville.
Since 1994, 78 Scouts have achieved Eagle rank within the troop. BSA Troop 75 prides itself on being boy-led, providing a program for young people that builds character, citizenship, and leadership and trains them in the three core values of Boy Scouts - the Scout Oath, the Scout Law and Outdoor Code.
The 2021 Troop 75 Eagle Scouts will also celebrate with their local council and be among nearly 300 young men and women who earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Three Fires Council.
The Three Fires Council Class of 2021 Gathering of Eagles will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, at Bobak's Signature Events at Seven Bridges in Woodridge.