Local teen receives highest Boy Scout rank at 15
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
For many Boy Scouts, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout is the crowning achievement to their scouting career. Because of the rigorous requirements, the majority of scouts who reach the rank of Eagle do so when they are around 17 to 18 years old.
There are, of course, many exceptions to this, and one of them lives in East Troy and is a member of Boy Scout Troop 92. Connor LaFreniere, a sophomore at East Troy High School, is 15 years old and was awarded the Eagle Scout rank with the Boy Scouts of America Aug. 25.
LaFreniere was honored an Eagle Scout Court of Honor Ceremony Nov. 3 at Edwards YMCA Camp and Retreat Center in East Troy. Local and state officials attended the ceremony, including state Sen. Steve Nass, Town of East Troy Police Chief Don Jensen and Town Chairman Joseph Klarkowski.
Nass presented LaFreniere with a Senate Citation and Jensen and Klarkowski presented the scout with and Award of Accomplishment.
“I can’t begin to tell you how proud his father and I am of him,” mom Katherine LaFreniere said. “Connor has worked extremely hard during his scouting career to achieve this rank by completing his project at 14 years of age.
“During his time in Boy Scouts, he has earned 36 merit badges, Order of the Arrow, Brotherhood, and bronze, gold, and silver palms. I can’t begin to tell you about all the campouts, hours of community service, and the mentoring of younger scouts in which he has participated.”
During the same time, his mother said Connor maintained a 3.92 GPA, was on the homecoming court as a freshman and was a member of the FIRST Robotics Competition Team 930, which took second place at the world competition in April.
For Connor, all those accomplishments are just part of what makes a good scout, which began when he joined the Tiger Scouts at the age of 6.
“As a scout you learn many things, not just the typical outdoor stuff like Merit Badges and awards,” he said. “In scouts we’re always working in the community, we help out at events, our troop has an Adopt A Highway and we’re just always lending a hand where we can.”
Being a scout also helped Connor develop his personal interests.
“Through scouts I was able to get into science and robotics more and earn awards through science-based activities, which really interested me,” he said.
Eagle Scout project
When it came time to organize and execute his Eagle Scout project, Connor said he spent a few months considering where he could do the most good.
“When I was looking for a project to do, one of the first places I visited was Mt. Olive Church (Mukwonago),” he said. “My family has gone there for many years and they showed me around their barn and talked about what they wanted to do and that’s when I decided that’s what I wanted to do.”
The project for the church consisted of building a concrete ramp as an approach to the entrance of the barn for large machinery, Connor said.
“I also installed some workbenches to help with storage of the tools they had,” Connor said.
“As a parent you’re always proud when they do something like this,” Katherine said. “He researched a few ideas, trying to be through and picked a project he thought would be most meaningful thing to him.”
As with all Eagle Scout projects, a lot of time is spent planning and documenting what the scout is doing. Connor starting planning his project in the fall/winter of 2018 and built the ramp and workbenches this summer.
“I had a mentor, who my family has known for years, who is an expert on concrete; he’s a contractor,” Connor said. “He had a lot of information about concrete and helped me get the truck there and make the pouring of the approach go smoothly.”
Connor said the whole experience was a learning opportunity that he enjoyed.
“Both in documentation and writing proposals as well as in leadership, it taught me a lot,” he said.
Leadership is something Connor has been part of with Troop 92 for a while now. He was a patrol leader in the past and this year will be an assistant senior patrol leader.
“I opted out to let other boys be a patrol leader this year,” he said. “I did take the assistant leader role and will help out the youth leader in the troop and lead meetings if he’s not present.”
As Connor looks toward the future, he sees himself in the science/engineering field, but he has some time to figure out just what he wants to do. For now, he’s enjoying his scouting activities and been a teenager.
“I have quite a few options, I just need to decide what career option I want to take.”
