Daren Gratts, 18, son of Dexter and Donna Gratts, Baldwin, received the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouting, during an Eagle Court of Honor ceremony May 24 at the First United Methodist Church in Baldwin.

Gratts has been a member of Baldwin’s Boy Scout Troop 65, chartered by the Baldwin Rotary Club, for eight years. He began his Scouting career in 1994, as a Cub Scout in Baldwin Cub Scout Pack 3065. He rose from the rank of Bobcat to Webelo, and received his Arrow of Light, Cub Scouting’s highest award, in 1998. He entered Troop 65 after receiving the Arrow of Light.

As a member of Troop 65, Gratts’s leadership positions have included troop scribe, assistant patrol leader, patrol leader, senior patrol leader, patrol quartermaster and troop quartermaster. He earned 29 merit badges while working toward his Eagle rank. He is a brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow honor camping society. He also has received the God and Me Religious Emblem Award. His Eagle project was the placement of 15 bluebird houses in the vicinity of Baldwin Elementary Intermediate Center.

Gratts attended Camp Naish, the camp for the Heart of America Council near Bonner Springs, several times. He went on numerous troop campouts, including Trappers’ Rendezvous near Halstead; the Pelathe District’s Camp Bromelsick at Clinton Lake, west of Lawrence; Thunderbird Merit Badge Workshop; district camporees; and two high adventure campouts – canoeing down the Kansas River, and a hike through the Wichita Mountains in southwestern Oklahoma.

Gratts is a 2005 graduate of Baldwin High School and a member of Coal Creek Gospel Hall in Baldwin. He has joined Troop 65 as an assistant Scoutmaster.

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Matthew Wayne Avila, 16, son of Rita and Mark Avila, Lawrence, received the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouting, during an Eagle Court of Honor ceremony April 17 at Westside Presbyterian Church in Lawrence.

Matthew was a member of Cub Scout Pack 3052 and later joined Troop 55. He has earned 25 merit badges and the 12 Month Camper Award. He has served in various leadership positions and is the assistant troop quartermaster. He is a Warrior in the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, an honorary camping society at H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation. He has achieved the rank of Brotherhood in the Order of the Arrow. Matthew has attended summer camp at H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation for five years.

For his Eagle Scout project, Matthew supervised a landscaping project around a ceremonial bell at the Lawrence Fraternal Order of Police Lodge.

Matthew, a Lawrence High School student, is a member of the junior varsity baseball team.