Photo by Lester Smith
Having just received his Eagle Scout badge, earned over a year ago in Boy Scout Troop 66, Jon Hagenow poses happily on September 30 with his brother Chris and mom Suzanne.
It was in the spring of 2016 that Jon Hagenow qualified in Boy Scout Troop 66 for his Eagle Award, the highest advancement level in the Scout program, and that spring he graduated from Suffield High as well. But Jon couldn’t wait for his Eagle award presentation, nor for the graduation ceremony on June 18. He was wanted in the job he had accepted in a young digital start-up in Norwalk, so it was off to Fairfield County without delay. It wasn’t until a year and a half later on September 30 that Scoutmaster John Riley caught up with Jon, and the Eagle Award was finally presented.
The traditional reading of the Eagle charge and Jon’s recitation of the Eagle Oath took place as a surprise feature at the Fall Fellowship meeting of Tschitani Lodge #10 of the Order of the Arrow, the Boy Scout honor society. This was held at Camp Mattatuck in Plymouth, near Waterbury. Jon was by then too old to be a Boy Scout, but he had become a member of the Order of the Arrow in 2010, which extended the age limit. And he had advanced in that organization to become this year’s Chief of the Northeast Region of the Order, somehow finding time to lead that region, comprising all the Lodges in the northeast quarter of the United States.
In his official capacity at the Lodge meeting, which included the induction ceremony for Scouts from the Hartford area, Jon delivered a fine motivational speech. He told the new members, “You have the power to change other people’s lives,” and he said, “The best way to ensure your future is to invest in your future.” Jon seems to have done well with that investment so far.