Nolan Teegerstrom donates wooden toys to Blue Valley Coordinator, Angie Peirce (left) and Joyce Knudson

The highest advancement rank in Scouting is the Eagle Scout Award. Out of the millions of boys that join scouting every year only five percent will make it all the way to be an Eagle Scout. Requirements in the areas of leadership, service and outdoor skills are mastered through a series of stages that are determined by various ranks. Each rank has it’s own set of specific tests that are organized by specific requirements and merit badges.

The Teegerstrom family has significantly surpassed the national average when it comes to achieving the Eagle Scout Award. Nolan Teegerstrom is now the latest in the last three generations of his family to be receiving the award. Last September Nolan decided that he would like to make his Eagle Scout project a benefit to disadvantaged children throughout our area. His project would be to make five toy rocking horses, twenty cars and twenty two vans out of wood. The pattern for the rocking horse came from a toy rocking horse the Teegerstroms had from when Nolan and his brother Seth were young. The patterns for the cars and vans came with the help of scout leader, Mark Udey.

After a conversation with area Blue Valley Coodinator, Angie Pierce, the plan became to distribute the toys in a way that was similar to the toys for tots campaign in larger cities. Part of the requirement for the project was that Nolan would plan and coordinate help from various members of the troop along with the organizing of the financial aspects of the project. Many Stromsburg businesses donated money for materials and local saw mill contractors, RayMark, donated the wood used for the project.

It took a total of 117 1/4 hours of labor to complete the project. And after all of the nights of work after school and a few Saturdays the toys were distributed on the 13^th of December. Nolan donated the excess funds that were not used for materials to Blue Valley#241 for all their efforts and dedication to this worthwhile effort. We look forward to seeing him complete his Eagle Scout requirements with final ceremonies coming up this spring.