Staff photos / J.T. Whitehouse The color guard brings flags to the front during the annual Celebration of Scouting Breakfast at the Lake Club in Poland on Tuesday. Color guard members include, front row, from left, Finn Patterson and Adam Abuqaduorah, and back row, from left, Nora Dade and Cade Henry (behind blue flag).

POLAND — Area Scouts have completed more than 19,000 service hours in the past year while working on their Eagle Scout projects — an average of 500 hours per project.

That tidbit of information was given Tuesday morning at the 21st annual Celebration of Scouting Breakfast at The Lake Club, which was hosted by the Stambaugh District, Great Trail Council Scouting America. The district covers troops in Mahoning, Trumbull and part of Portage counties.

Charles James, Stambaugh District chairman, addressed the state of local scouting.

“In the past year, we had 34 Eagle projects,” James said. “Those projects turned in 19,044 service hours, which averaged to over 500 hours per project. I am sure we’ll do a lot more in the coming years.”

Keynote speaker for the event was Katie Burkey, owner of Molly Maid of Mahoning-Trumbull County and a big supporter of scouting. Burkey is a Cincinnati native who moved to Youngstown in 1980 and grew up on the West Side.

She graduated from Ursuline High School and in 2002, she opened her Molly Maid business. Today, her business has a team of 30 employees providing cleaning services to the region.

Burkey and her husband Bill have two sons who are successful today thanks to the life training they received in scouting.

“Scouting shapes who our young people become,” Katie said. “Scouting presents the building blocks for lives and careers.”

She said her sons went through scouting and today, Ben is a commercial pilot and Jacob is an engineer with Morgan Engineering in Alliance.

Also speaking at the breakfast was Troop 60 Scout Finn Patterson, son of Shayna and Nick Patterson of Boardman. Patterson began his scouting journey as a Tiger Cub in Pack 114, Boardman, earned his Arrow of Light in 2022 and promptly crossed over into Troop 60. He has steadily advanced, recently attaining the rank of Life Scout, while earning 23 (and counting) merit badges along the way.

He also has served in multiple leadership positions within the troop, including Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, and Quartermaster. Patterson is also a member of the Order of the Arrow and has attended both the 2023 National Jamboree and a trek to Philmont High Adventure Camp in New Mexico in 2025. He is working toward getting an Eagle Scout project. He will be a sophomore at Ursuline High School in the fall.

“Scouting runs in my family,” Patterson said. “My older brother Jay is a 2025 Eagle Scout, my dad was in Troop 60, and my grandfather was in Struthers Troop 101. My grandfather started it all.”

His grandfather, Jim Patterson, was in the audience and was proud to hear his grandson speak.

The younger Patterson takes an interest in many extracurricular activities, including soccer, speech and debate, and robotics. He plans to become an aerospace engineer.