Raymond Alumbaugh’s fellow Boy Scouts will miss him, not only for his dedicating to the Scouting life, but also for his cooking.
“Raymond is something of a gourmet cook,” his Scout leader Stacie Sigler explained Sunday, at Alumbaugh’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor. “With him, we knew his patrol would probably get a fantastic meal.”
But now that Alumbaugh, 18, is nearly finished with his formal Boy Scout career, Troop 55 needs a new cook.
“The first meeting without Raymond, the food was a disaster,” Sigler said with a laugh.
Alumbaugh, a 2015 Marmaton Valley High School graduate, earned the Eagle ranking Sunday as the final rung on his 10-year ladder through Boy Scouts.
On hand for the ceremony at Iola’s Calvary United Methodist Church were his parents, Sarah and Andy Alumbaugh, several of his fellow Scouts, and other well-wishers.
Alumbaugh noted he didn’t join Cub Scouts — the predecessor to Boy Scouts — until his third year of eligibility.
Still, it was a quick match.
Alumbaugh earned the required 21 badges, many dealing with community service, to ascend to the Eagle ranking, as well as spearheading a community service project.
In his case, Alumbaugh spearheaded an effort to repaint, repair or otherwise replace 127 flag poles for the flags the American Legion posts around Iola’s courthouse square on holidays such as Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veterans Day.
And then there’s his cooking.
Alumbaugh’s grandmother, Barb Shoate of Moran, noted young Raymond once prepared Thanksgiving by himself at 13 years old because his parents and grandmother had job and other commitments that prevented them from cooking the meal.
“He’s quite a young man,” Shoate said.
Moran teen achieves Boy Scouting pinnacle
