Troop 79 and Homewood High School Class of 2024 celebrate five new Eagle Scouts

On Feb. 3, five students of the Homewood High School Class of 2024 and members of Troop 79 celebrated their advancement to Eagle in a Court of Honor held at All Saints Episcopal Church.

Elliott Allen, Crenshaw Bunn, Harry Morales, Klaus Rinker, and Ben Shacka completed the last requirements to advance to Eagle over many months of 2023, and celebrated together with several extended family members who traveled in from out of state.

The boys supported each other through their Eagle Scout Service Projects. Elliott Allen led the building of a gaga ball pit for Edgewood Elementary School; Crenshaw Bunn, a keyhole garden for New Life Pantry; Harry Morales, mobile sensory garden beds for The Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs; Klaus Rinker, new pergola construction and patio improvements for The Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama; and Ben Shacka, a church parking lot security guard shed for Highlands United Methodist Church. Community partners were represented at the ceremony by Carlos Javier Torres, Director of Programs and Community Partnerships at ¡HICA!

During the ceremony, John Rinker, Franklin Rinker, and John Day, Klaus Rinker's father, grandfather, and great uncle, participated as Eagle Scouts in the Scout Charge and Handshake, along with Hunter Morales, Harry Morales's older brother, and Aidan Matchett and Max Breeden, the boys' neighbors.

Beneath their own Eagle awards, Elliott Allen's grandmother Barbara Hitt pinned her grandson with the Eagle award of her late father, William C. Gegenheimer, and Harry Morales's grandmother Coral Ann Thomas pinned her grandson with the Eagle award of her late husband, Dr. Gregory D. Thomas.

For his pinning, Crenshaw Bunn was accompanied to the front by Rebecca Crenshaw, the grandmother with whom he shares his name, and in the audience was Patricia Heath, grandmother of Ben Shacka, in from farthest afield to witness the event.

The members of the Raccoon patrol participated in several high adventures, including Florida Sea Base, Northern Tier, and Kandersteg, but all together they spent two weeks hiking through the Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, with Stephen Allen, John Rinker, Ralph Russell, and fellow Scout Colin Sisk. Elliott's father, Stephen, and Klaus's father, John, shared several humorous anecdotes and subsequent revelations of that experience during open remarks, before the boys were congratulated by their Life to Eagle coach, Dan Weinrib, and former Scoutmasters Jim Wooten and Ramey Harrell.

As a final project together as Scouts, Ben, Crenshaw, Elliott, Harry, and Klaus toasted and roasted their coach and scoutmasters, Ralph Russell and Craig Hennecy among them. At a reception hosted by the mothers of Troop 79's newest Eagle Scouts, three generations of family, neighbors, and members of the community enjoyed a cake iced with the Scout Law and favorite items from the boys' Philmont "meals." Celebrating with the boys was physics teacher Jacob Helf, a favorite among favorites from Homewood High School.

-Submitted by Erika Hille Rinker