Over 160 Eagle Scouts were honored for their achievements by the Seneca Waterways Council of Scouts BSA Tuesday night at the 71st annual Eagle Scout Mentor dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rochester.
At the dinner, Eagles are honored for their projects and are also paired with mentors who can help them in their chosen career fields.
The Council also presented the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (DESA) to Eagle Scout Albert Paley, celebrating his lifetime achievement and international recognition as an American modernist metal sculptor and artist. Paley is a Class of 1958 Eagle Scout from Troop 109 in Pennsauken, NJ and has been an active artist for over 50 years at his Rochester studio. The DESA was established by the National Eagle Scouts Association to recognized Eagle Scouts who achieve extraordinary national-level recognition, fame, or eminence within their profession and/or service to the nation and have a strong record of voluntary service to their community. Paley is the first metal sculptor and non-architect to receive the Institute Honors Award, the highest recognition presented by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He has been commissioned by both public institutions and private corporations and has completed more than 50 site-specific works. Paley has become one of the most distinguished and influential metalsmiths in the world. The award was presented to Paley by Dr. David Munson, Class of 1968 Eagle Scout, and President of Rochester Institute of Technology.
12 Scouts from five counties were honored with Eagle Project of the Month recognition. From among those projects, chosen as Eagle Project of the Year was Rebecca Hober’s restoration and removal of invasive species from a trail and park in Penfield. We met Rebecca on Inside the FLX, where she talked about the project.
The project involved 50 volunteers working 340 hours. The total benefit to the communities of the 163 Eagle projects was $1,013,722. Over 3200 volunteers worked almost 29,000 hours on the projects. Bober, now a sophomore at RIT, was one of the first girls to earn the rank of Eagle in the Seneca Waterways Council.
The 2021 Eagle Scout class
Albert Paley was honored as the Distinguished Eagle Scout
Additional highlights of the night included recognition of Eagle Scout Andrew Fullone from Troop 167 in Pittsford, recipient of a Louis and Sally Langie Eagle Scout Scholarship for $20k towards college education; and each of the 163 Eagle Scouts were matched with career mentors, local professionals who sponsor individual Scouts and attend as guests to spend dinner time learning about their Scout’s goals and aspirations while sharing professional experiences and insights.
