Brothers become Eagle Scouts

Matt and Robbie Petzoldt of Cape Girardeau attend two different schools, plan on careers in the secular and nonsecular world. They aren't interested in the same girls, and their circles of friends are different.

One thing they do have in common is that they both became Eagle Scouts on Saturday at Academic Auditorium at Southeast Missouri State University. Though 22 months apart in age, they timed their achievements so they could be honored at the same ceremony.

"Both boys had really great Scout leaders," said their mother, Debbie. "Within the troops these dads took other boys besides their own under their wings. They shared dads."

The ceremony to become Eagle Scouts, the top honor for the Boy Scouts of America, was especially meaningful for the boys' father, Lynn, who had been unable to fulfill the mandatory swimming requirements when he was a Boy Scout.

"He was really driven to see the boys make Eagle Scout," Debbie Petzoldt said.

Matt's community service project, a requirement for Eagle Scout, included construction of three 10-foot picnic tables on the grounds of St. Andrews School. Robbie decided upon a project for his church, Hanover Lutheran. He built three flower beds and landscaped the area.

Matt, a 16-year-old sophomore at Saxony Lutheran High School, would like to be a pastor or director of Christian education. Robbie, an 18-year-old senior at Central High School, has signed up with the U.S. Air Force and will begin training after a summer project in Colorado for Young Life, a Christian youth group.

U.S. Sen. Jim Talent spoke at the ceremony, which recognized more than 70 Eagle Scouts from six districts in Missouri and Illinois.

"The prerequisite to leadership is having a service heart. In a culture divided, Boy Scouts are a rock of stability and morality in a sea of cultural change," Talent said. "Boy Scouts have an advantage of learning through scouting what having good character means. A lot of people don't learn this."

cpagano@semissourian.com

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