Boy Scouts honor three Silver Beavers at annual banquet
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 10, 2015 1:46 PM
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Recipients of the Silver Beaver Award, a Boy Scout council member's highest honor, stand with their spouses after receiving the award. Award recipients from left are Brent Heath, Ashton Griffin and Jeremiah Daniels.
MOUNT OLIVE -- It is a family affair.
His grandfather received the award, and so did two of his uncles.
And on Saturday evening in the Lois A. Murphy center, Ashton Griffin became the fourth member of his family to receive the Silver Beaver Award -- the highest honor an adult can receive from the Boy Scouts of America.
"It means a lot for me to be included with those that have received this award," Griffin said. "My grandfather was the first Eagle Scout in Wayne County."
Brent Heath and Jeremiah Daniels joined Griffin in receiving the honor at Saturday night's event.
Heath said he was not expecting to receive the award.
"It's very humbling," Heath said. "It's not something I was anticipating. I consider myself to be among the elite members of Scouting now that I've been awarded this honor."
The Silver Beaver Award was introduced in 1931 as a way to honor adult Scouters who have served to the highest capacity at the council level. It is a silver pendant that hangs around the neck on a blue and white ribbon.
"Scouting creates a good citizen," Heath said. "It teaches you to set goals and reach those goals through hard work."
Daniels said he owed his involvement in the Boy Scouts to being taught to pay it forward from a young age.
"It's immensely humbling," Daniels said. "I've been in Scouting since I was 10 and have been surrounded by a lot of great people. I was always told as a youth to pay it forward as an adult, and so that's what I'm trying to do."
Daniels said what mattered most to him was serving the community he lives in.
"Service to the community and being able to serve it is the highest honor as a Scout," Daniels said. "It helped me learn how to be a leader. It teaches you responsibility and how to commit to something and stick to it."
Griffin said he had many good memories from being a young Scout, which allowed him to stick with it throughout the decades.
"My favorite memory is probably when my father and I went on the trip to Bath in the 1960s, as well as a trip we took to Washington, D.C.," he said. "Now I enjoy being on the Eagle boards and reviewing potential candidates for the honor of being an Eagle Scout. I've met a lot of great young men doing that."
Saturday night's event also saw nearly 70 Eagle Scouts inducted as the William A. Moon 2014 Eagle Scout class.
"Most people have no concept of what goes on in the background to make this program possible," Moon said.
Drew Covert, president of the Tuscarora Council, said Scouting is invaluable to any young man that takes part in it.
"Good homes and good parents produce strong young men," he said. "But Scouting tempers the steel."