Eagle Scouts

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — By the time Daniel Gebel’s day is over on Sunday, his name will have been added to an exclusive club that includes presidents, astronauts and world-renowned entertainment figures. Gebel, who at 15 is quite young for an Eagle Scout, will join his brother, Brenton, and their close friend, Jacob Tuttle, in being given the highest honor a Boy Scout can achieve. The trio, who are all members of Milledgeville’s Community Baptist Church, have been friends for 13 years and have all grown up together through their time in Boy Scouts.

“Staying committed is probably the hardest part of it,” Daniel said from an education room inside Community Baptist. “You’ve got to be there every Monday, be at every camping trip, and then you start getting busy with school. You’ve got homework, sports and different activities, and when you start to get older, you get a car and you want to go do this, do that, and you don’t want to go to scouts. It’s just about staying committed because that has happened to a lot of them where they just find other things to do and don’t want to come.”

“There’s an old joke that says you want to earn your Eagle before you get caught by the car fumes and the perfume,” said Daniel’s dad, Brent Gebel. “You have to have it done by your 18th birthday, so Jacob and Brenton were toward the end of their time. Daniel’s still 15 and finished at the end of his ninth grade year, so he saw his brothers’ and Jacobs’ leading example and recognized ‘I need to get on through this.’”

Whatever a scout’s aspirations may be, the act of actually earning the Eagle Scout award requires much more than a sudden moment of motivation. Earning the Eagle Scout badge is an imposing and time-consuming undertaking; when asked how many hours they had spent in the pursuit of earning their bagdes, the scouts’ only reply was “Countless.” To achieve the rank of Eagle, scouts are required to earn at least 26 merit badges that signify their proficiency in a wide array of hands-on tasks and skills. The curriculum is largely focused on leadership and practical applications of community service, and culminates in a final service project that benefits the scout’s local community.

Indeed, the Milledgeville community has benefitted greatly from the three scouts. Jacob, with the help of others, built a drum major’s podium for the Baldwin High School Marching Band, cleared debris off a concrete patio adjacent to the field and secured an American flag from Rep. Jody Hice that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol and raised it on the Baldwin County baseball field.

Brenton led a team of about 10 people that built and installed eight public benches at Little Fishing Creek golf course to assist golfers in need of a respite from the summer heat. Daniel and his team cleared a .6 mile-long bike trail near the entrance of Bartram Forest that is already being used regularly by bikers and nature enthusiasts alike. Milledgeville residents from all walks of life will take advantage of the scouts’ projects for years to come, but perhaps the biggest benefactors of the projects were the scouts themselves.

“We have a lot of younger guys in our troop with us,” said Jacob’s mom, Linda Tuttle. “When Jacob did his scout project and the patio was completely covered in broken bricks, one of the things that he found out was that when he got over there with the younger guys and started working with them, then they kind of stepped up and realized what they needed to do. They were great workers, and that’s one thing that I remember him mentioning, that it’s a great way to lead. Don’t just tell them what to do, but get in there with them.”

“It’s super exciting because it shows a commitment and a level of leadership,” said Community Baptist Pastor Trey Harper. “As an Eagle Scout as well, I know the journey they’ve been on, and they’re three great kids with bright futures ahead.”

Local Boy Scout Troop No. 124 is sponsored by the First United Methodist Church of Milledgeville.