Three Eagle Scouts were recognized at last week’s Sealy City Council meeting for completing their Eagle Scout Projects. Zander Crawley, Cameron Eschenburg and Ike Konvicka were three of the most recent scouts from Sealy Troop 548 to achieve Eagle Scout status.

Crawley and Konvicka are entering their senior years at Sealy High School while Eschenburg was a top-10 student in Sealy’s Class of 2020.

“In Sealy we hold the Eagle rank very highly,” said Scoutmaster Charlie Ribardo. “We make sure that they complete every requirement and that their projects are large enough and sufficient enough to meet all the demands.”

In order for a scout to achieve the Eagle Scout title, they must first plan, lead and complete an eligible Eagle Scout project. These projects are required to benefit the community and are often very time-consuming.

“It has to be a project that the scout completely plans and manages,” said Ribardo. “It must benefit an organization or someone in the community (where) it’s not related to the scout or related to scouting.”

Ribardo emphasized that great leadership is necessary to complete these projects that demand, “well over 100 hours of volunteer time including all of the scouts, parents and other volunteers,” he said.

The Sealy City Council honored the city’s newest Eagle Scouts by inviting them to Tuesday’s meeting. Sealy Mayor Carolyn Bilski and other councilmembers expressed their thanks to the scouts on behalf of the community.

Ultimately, the scouts were thankful for the opportunity to help the community and were sure to express their appreciation for everybody that assisted them to their recent Eagle Scout achievement.

“Thank you to all of the community that has helped the troops throughout the years and helped me,” Eschenburg said.

Zander Crawley

“It was really cool to go to the city council meeting,” Crawley said in an interview. “In scouts, something we all strive for is to be respected. That’s (what) drives us.”

As his project, Crawley organized a clothing drive that provided 519 quality winter clothing items to well over 100 members of his community.

Crawley explained his favorite moment from the project was when he provided, “one little boy a dark blue jacket. He put it on and it put something in my heart,” he said. “I got an overwhelming feeling of gratitude from being able to do something like that. That’s what Scouts pushes you to do.”

Cameron Eschenburg

Eschenburg also represented Troop 548 at the council meeting after he completed a project at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Frydek. Eschenburg installed two flag poles – for the Vatican and American flags – with an intricate rock-wall border.

Eschenburg’s project honors the 65 members of St. Mary’s Church in Frydek that served in World War II and returned home safely.

“We went up there as a troop for two Saturdays,” Eschenburg said. “I made a task sheet to get everyone jobs so nobody was standing around.”

Eschenburg said he appreciated the response from the church community.

“Once it was done, they had all said it was really good. Actually, a lot of them gave donations to us to help fund the project too,” he said.

Eschenburg ensured all remaining funds after the project’s completion were donated to the church.

Ike Konvicka

Konvicka was the third Eagle Scout at the council meeting to have recently completed his community-centered project. He chose to build bat houses for a struggling bat population at Bane Park in northwest Houston which is crucial to the park’s ecosystem.

“Ike organized the troop, collected donations and then researched the best method and the best bat house to build,” said Scoutmaster Ribardo. “He and the troop built the bat houses/boxes. He managed that whole process.”

Konvicka reported that the project required, “about 150 hours,” of volunteer time between himself and his fellow scouts.

While it was a daunting project that required a lot of time and dedication, Konvicka said he enjoyed the opportunity to work with his fellow troop members.

“I thought it was fun to put the bat houses together with the other scouts and just enjoy ourselves,” Konvicka explained.