BY MEGEN HIPPENSTEEL

Truman junior, Dakota Lepker, will soon be an Eagle Scout. This kind of achievement doesn’t go unnoticed. Lepker is already beginning to see changes around him.

One of these changes is that Lepker senses a more respectful attitude coming from many of his elders and peers even though he hasn’t technically received the award yet.

Becoming an Eagle Scout isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes many years of training and the will to continuously earn merit badges. And, for those few dozen boys who do manage to rank up to Eagle, they are strongly looked up to within their troops and society as a whole.

Only seven percent of boy scouts actually show the patience and determination to qualify for eagle scout honors.

“It’s pretty cool if you think about all the people that are out there,” Lepker said. “It just makes you feel accomplished and extremely proud of who you have become.”

Eagle Scouts will always have a ton of pride for their troop and themselves. Lepker agrees that it wasn’t just him by himself earning the merit badges. It took the whole troop working together almost all the time. Lepker would like to thank his troop because without them earning the merit badges to become an Eagle Scout would have been twice as difficult. Lepker also believes his family played a big role in him making it this far.   

“I joined boy scouts as young I could and it was my grandma who wanted me to stay with it,” Lepker said.

Lepker also shared that his grandma made him promise that he would achieve Eagle Scout and even in her passing, Lepker still stands by that promise. Now that he has granted his grandma’s wish Lepker is ready for what’s to come with his new rank as an Eagle Scout.