Four Scouts advance to Eagle

A new sign for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Ramona and emergency contact information for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation are two of four Eagle Scout projects recently completed in Ramona.

Also finished were a garden at the Ramona Community Center and a durable upcoming events sign at San Vicente Road and Warnock Drive.

The four young men completing the projects each faced questions and evaluations from one of four Eagle boards of review last Thursday evening in separate rooms of the Mormon church at 527 Ninth St. After each three-person board reviewed its Eagle Scout candidate, all gathered in a common area for the announcement that the four young men have earned Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouting program.

Advancing to the rank of Eagle Scout were Thomas E. Finch and Joshua McKay Sulzen of Unit 647, Brendan Raymond Ryan of Troop 679, and Lee Richard Whittlesey of Troop 768,

For his Eagle project, Whittlesey planned and oversaw the restoration of the Ramona Chamber of Commerce events sign at San Vicente and Warnock. The new sign includes changeable panel inserts and replaces the wooden structure with a more durable and stonger metal frame.

Ryan’s project replaced an older sign that was difficult to see and did not state “Active Duty Welcome”at VFW Post 3893 at 2247 Kelly St.

Sulzen led a crew of workers in planting and restoring a garden at Ramona Community Center, 434 Aqua Lane. His project included a plaque to memorialize a member of the Ramona Senior Center who recently died.

Finch gathered emergency contact information from all families in his church’s congregation except the few who did not want to be included. The information, entered into the church membership database, was used to help carry out a simulated emergency with power and phone system outage.

This is the seventh year that Eagle Scout boards of review have been held in Ramona, said Bryant Gold, who coordinates the reviews. Before March 2005, Scouts in the Ramona area traveled to downtown San Diego for their reviews.