Legion’s Eagle Scout of the Year is from Woodbury

WOODBURY — The American Legion Department of Minnesota Eagle Scout of the Year is a junior at Woodbury High School whose Eagle Scout project was motivated by his grandfather, who fought in the Army in the Vietnam War.

Ryan Kuehn’s grandfather died as a war casualty on this 30th birthday. Kuehn feels connected to veterans as a result. He built 15 wooden donation boxes for Woodbury Post 501 so they can store the money when members of the public donate to them. The post had been using plastic ice cream buckets for its annual Poppy Day collections.

“The wooden boxes will also provide a more professional-looking donation box that will hopefully go toward raising more funding to support local Woodbury charities, Woodbury High School and American Legion programs,” Kuehn wrote.

He went about drafting the boxes, getting materials (which were donated by his father), making all the parts, working with a laser-engraver, then organizing a crew of volunteers to assemble the boxes. The volunteers were adults and Scouts, who were rewarded with a lunch.

Kuehn is with Troop 9072 and has earned numerous merit badges.

He has a long record of community service: volunteering to ring bells for the Salvation Army, picking up trash in a park, packing meals, planting trees, among other acts.

However, it should be noted this young person took American sign language in high school and joined the ASL Club. He went on to participate in deaf and hard-of-hearing snowboarding lessons in and out of school time. Kuehn himself is a hard-of-hearing person.

“He has innate knowledge of what it is like to live in a world that does not consider his needs,” said English teacher Samantha Valenta. “Due to this knowledge, he has empathy for others, which will help him help others and live out the Eagle Scout way.”

He is involved at St. Ambrose Catholic Community. He is hoping to finish high school with a 3.9 grade-point average. He was deciding between the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities or the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He hasn’t decided a major yet.

Attend the department convention to find out how his GPA turned out and where he will go to college. He will be there to accept his award.

Nominating him was Woodbury Post 501 Commander Bob Dolan.