Eagle Scout Earns More Merits

Only 5 percent of Boys Scouts go on to achieve the highest advancement of Eagle Scout rank, let alone more merits after achieving this milestone. But Lucas Shapland, a local Boy Scout who started in Troop 601, was recognized for earning 88 merit badges and received his 12th Eagle Scout Palm during a recent Court of Honor.

Shapland became an Eagle Scout in 2008, per Boy Scout records, which required him to earn 21 merit badges. Palms are awarded for every five merit badges earned after becoming an Eagle Scout, stated Joe Mueller, Boys Scouts director of public relations, in an email. There are currently 128 merit badges in the Boy Scouts of America.

Shapland is a senior at , and a member of the National Honor Society. He is an accomplished musician at the district and state levels. He is a percussionist for the St. Louis Youth Symphony Orchestra. He plans to major in actuarial science in college, and applied to the University of Nebraska, Drake University and the University of Wisconsin, per the Boy Scouts announcement.

Ronald Green, scout executive and chief executive officer of the Greater St. Louis Area Council, opened the Court of Honor ceremony, and John Weltmer, an Eagle Scout and a veteran Scouting volunteer, presented the award, according to a Boy Scouts of America Greater St. Louis Council accounting of the event.

Boy Scouts Troop 601 meets at 7 p.m. every Monday at in .