LAURINBURG — Boy Scout Troop 420 promoted its latest Eagle Scout on April 10, elevating Brandon Michael White to the highest rank in scouting in a ceremony at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church.

Before promotion to Eagle, scouts must earn a minimum of 21 merit badges, serve six months in an active troop leadership position after achieving the rank of Life Scout, and conduct a community service project. Only four percent of Scouts nationally ever achieve Eagle rank.

In keeping with tradition, White’s parents Mike and Doris White were the ones to pin the Eagle badge on their son’s uniform for the first time. In turn, White presented his parents with miniature Eagle pins.

Eagle Scout Gus Purcell delivered the traditional charge to White as a new Eagle Scout to be loyal and courageous, give service, and live with honor.

White was presented with the Eagle Scout Certificate by Assistant Scoutmaster Page Pratt.

White joined cub scouts with Pack 420 in 2006 and in 2009 received his Arrow of Light Award became a fully-fledged Boy Scout.

In 2012, White’s fellow scouts elected him for inclusion in the Order of the Arrow while at summer camp at Camp Raven Knob. He completed his Order of the Arrow ordeal that year in the Klahican Lodge.

Among his many summer camp experiences, White considers fishing, swimming, snorkeling, paddle boarding, canoeing and kayaking in the Florida Keys in 2013 to be the most memorable.

For his Eagle service project, in the spring of 2015 White planned and constructed a playground at Faith Presbyterian Church in Laurinburg, where his grandparents are members. He tackled his project two years later than planned in order to concentrate on his father’s recovery from an aortic aneurysm.

White will graduate from Marlboro Academy in 2018, after which he plans to study architecture. He has consistently balanced an active athletic schedule with scouting as a member of Marlboro Academy’s state championship soccer teams in 2014 and 2015.

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Staff report