THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230370
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAY LIDINGTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 60 lines
More than 80 local teens were honored Wednesday for joining the ranks of director Steven Spielberg and Texas billionaire Ross Perot, if only in one respect.
The new Eagle Scouts, who won Scouting's highest honor during 1996, were feted at a dinner Wednesday night in the cavernous hangar deck of the aircraft carrier Enterprise at the Norfolk Naval Base.
The Eagle winners are among a select group of only 1 million Scouts - including the Oscar-winning director and the former presidential candidate - who have won the honor since 1911.
The Scouts each earned 21 merit badges; served six months as a troop official; and planned, developed and led a service project in his church, school or community. They are members of the 86-year-old Tidewater Council of Boy Scouts of America, which covers troops in Hampton Roads and the five northeastern counties of North Carolina.
The council is 18 months younger than the national Scouting organization, which was founded in 1910, officials said.
One Scout, James Plachinski of Chesapeake, spruced up a statue of the Virgin Mary as his Eagle project in preparation for the 80th anniversary of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bowers Hill.
The statue was dirty and needed painting. ``It looked pretty nasty,'' said Plachinski, an 18-year-old senior at Western Branch High School.
Squeezing in time between school and his job at a nearby farmer's market, Plachinski, along with his troopmates, church members and family, dug a small garden and put benches around the statue.
Eight months after it began in October 1995, the project was finished.
``I'm very proud,'' Plachinski said of the Eagle Scout honor. ``A lot of people say being (an Eagle) Scout helps you get places.''
Plachinski said he hopes to parlay the opportunity the award carries into an education at the Virginia Military Institute and a successful career as a civil/environmental engineer.
Other Scouts may go on to careers in the armed services, a natural given the cooperation between the Navy and the local Boy Scout council, organizers said.
Retired Navy Capt. Donald ``Si'' Simons, a 58-year Scouting veteran, was banquet chairman this year, the second time the dinner has been held aboard the Enterprise and the 14th consecutive year the Navy has provided a site for the event.
Several Navy officers have Scouting backgrounds and lent their services as speakers and sponsors, Simons said. The Enterprise also has several crew members who were Scouts, he said.
Rear Adm. David R. Ruble, director of logistics and fleet supply for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, was the featured speaker Wednesday. ILLUSTRATION: GARY C. KNAPP
Parker Consaul, left, examines a computer display of the Elizabeth
River and the Hampton Roads harbor while the system is explained to
him by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brady Foore.
LOCAL EAGLE SCOUTS
GRAPHIC
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]