Three Boy Scouts from Troop 45 advance to highest rank at Eagle Court of Honor

On Saturday, March 7, Warwick’s Boy Scouts of America Troop 45 advanced three more of its members to the rank of Eagle, raising the troop’s total of Eagle Scouts to 122 since it was charted by American Legion Post 214 and first organized in 1960.

The statistics are remarkable because less than four percent of all scouts attain this rank, the highest one awarded in scouting.

Troop 45 presented the awards at an “Eagle Court of Honor” for Michael J. Moore, the son of Helen and Mel Moore; Mark J. Pennings, the son of Karen and Joseph Pennings; and Maxwell T. Hranitz, the son of Marie and Paul Hranitz.

As an interesting aside, Pennings and Hranitz are cousins and Eagle Scout Jason Hranitz, the older son of Marie and Paul Hranitz, was on hand to participate in the presentation of the Eagle Badge. .

The event was held at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, which sponsors Troop 45.

State, county, town and village officials along with representatives of many local organizations were among those attending the Eagle Court.

To achieve the Eagle Rank, the scouts were required to complete a minimum of 21 Merit Badges, have leadership roles in and outside of the Troop and participate in community service. Each candidate must also complete a major community service project as the last requirement before attaining the Eagle rank.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s service project entailed providing four additional backed benches for the Warwick Valley Middle School’s Alpha Courtyard.

Moore researched a sturdy backed bench design, bought the necessary materials, and completed the project over several work days with the help of numerous scout and adult volunteers.

Mark Pennings

Mark Pennings’ project consisted of providing leadership to make a reading/research room out of a former stair case landing for The Village of Florida Historical Society at the Green Family Homestead.

The project was completed by preparing, scraping, spackling wall cracks, priming and painting walls along with replacing the wood plank flooring.

The area will provide the visitors of the Green House an area to review books, maps and reading materials in an area where they can spread out and review the historic documents.

Maxwell Hranitz

Maxwell Hranitz’s project consisted of designing and building a filming stand for both JV and Varsity soccer and lacrosse, as well as the club soccer and lacrosse teams.

The lacrosse and soccer teams can now film the games from a better angle so they can later review the footage and work to improve their skills.

Hranitz designed the stand with the help of his father and brother.

When the plan was completed, they went to Roe Brothers Lumber, received a quote on the materials and then set out to collect sufficient donations to purchase the materials.

Joined by fellow Scouts and family, he started with the base and after two days finished the construction of the stand and ladder until all that was left was to get it to the field and stain it.

- Roger Gavan