Boy Scout Troop 71 of Macungie celebrated the 69th Scout to achieve the rank of Eagle at the Court of Honor recently.

Conner Bade, of Macungie, was recognized for this achievement at Camp Serranova.

Bade's Eagle Scout project was to build an archery range at Camp Serranova.

"I enjoy outdoor shooting sports, so originally I wanted to build a rifle range," Bade said. However, the camp already had one that had just recently been rebuilt so I couldn't do that. Instead I turned my eyes to archery, the other outdoor shooting sport and that's how I got my project."

As part of earning the Eagle Scout rank, Scouts must plan and organize the project and work as the manager overseeing volunteers.

"I learned many things," Bade said. "The first and most important in my opinion, was how to manage people. Everyone has different strengths and different personalities so it was valuable to learn how to work with different people at the same time. I also learned patience and got a better understanding of time management from doing the project. The hardest skill for me to learn was fundraising. I didn't really know where to start with that. Luckily my mother does that kind of stuff for a living and had a great knowledge base for me to pull from.

"In terms of telling my friends and family what to do it was interesting and kept me on my toes. At points I would have to try and explain things as simply as possible because two of my very good friends who helped on the project are both from China, one from Shanghai and one from Hong Kong. So, since English is their second language, it would take a different approach for them to understand. Also, sometimes my father would have different ideas on things we could do on the project so sometimes I had to tell him to do what I wanted to have done and not stray from the plan."

Eagle Scout is the last rank in Scouting.

"My journey from Life Scout to Eagle took a pretty long time," Bade said. "It took me around two years. When a Scout hits Life it's like finishing a marathon, but the finish line of that marathon is the starting line of the next. At about the age when boys hit Life they are also entering high school, getting cars, getting more serious relationships and having to focus on school a little bit harder. All of that combined with the massive amount of work that needs to be done to complete Eagle can, and did for me, become a bit of a mental block. Having to plan the project was the hardest thing for me. There was just so much to do that I would work on it a little bit at a time when I had time and so time got away from me.

"When I turned 17 is when I really started to work. I knew if I didn't start soon I would never make it so I kicked myself, with a bit of help from friends and family and just focused on Scouting. When I couldn't do any work on the project during winter time I did all the merit badges I had left to finish. The bulk of the project was finished in the fall with just a few finishing touches in the spring. I would suggest to any boy, figure out what you think is the hardest part to becoming an Eagle and focus on that first. Being done with the project in the fall gave me a lot of motivation to finish out Eagle Scout.

"I started Scouting as a Wolf in Cub Scouts. That was about when I was eight or nine I believe so I've been in Scouting for almost 10 years. I joined the Boy Scouts when I was about 11, so that would make it a six year journey to the rank of Eagle Scout."

Bade hopes to join the Navy in the future and concentrate on computer science as his field of study.