LINN  — Grace Wagner, 16, of Linn, has achieved quite a bit since joining the Girl Scouts Troop 71097 eight years ago, earning Gold, the highest honor in the organization and equivalent of the BSA’s Eagle Scout. Wagner earned Gold in the summer of 2022 and recently earned Eagle Scout as a member of BSA Troop 3017.

If not for Grace, Linn would have been devoid of the Girl Scouts, which laid the groundwork for her development in BSA.

“Grace’s interest in scouting began when her younger brother, Tyler, brought home a flyer in the first grade and asked to attend the informational meeting,” Tammy Wagner explained. “Grace joined us for that meeting when she was in third grade (age 8), and from there, she was at every scouting event allowable to her as a sibling, including meetings.”

Grace approached the Cubmaster and asked to join; however, at the time, that was not allowed.

In addition to joining her brother in Cub Scouts, Grace asked Tammy to begin a Girl Scouts troop in Linn since there was not one to join. Tammy obliged the request and scouting became a weekly and often twice-a-week activity, whether Grace went to Girl Scouts or joined her brother in the Cub Scouts.

Many people do not understand that levels in the Girl Scouts are determined by age, not accomplishment. In BSA, the boys (and girls) earn advancement by completing merit badges. That would come into play later.

“In Girl Scouts, you go to your appropriate age group,” Tammy explained. “You’ve got girl scouts out for two years. When you rejoin the group, you’ll just be automatically in the same grade level that you’re in. As for Boy Scouts, you can start and be really gusto and get through all your ranks. If you stop and come back, you start right back where you left off. Your age doesn’t matter. You have to have so many nights of camping, that kind of thing. So Girl Scouts is more about awards and badges, and Boy Scouts is more about merit badges. You’ve got to have more motivation in Boy Scouts.

“Grace wasted no time asking me to be the Scoutmaster of the first girls’ troop in Linn,” Tammy added. “I accepted the challenge without much consideration to all the efforts ahead of us, a decision I am privileged to say became the highlight for many years to come.”

In 2018, Tammy learned that in February 2019, girls would be allowed to join Boy Scouts of America for the first time in history.

Grace remained in Girl Scouts, and when allowed, she officially began her Boy Scouts journey as her brother crossed over just in time for them to be competitive with one another.

“The merit badges and nights of camping became a serious driving force for Grace and Tyler,” said Tammy.

In 2020, scouting adventures closed due to COVID-19, with weeks of quarantine and no in-person meetings with either group.

“This could have been the end of her scouting as it did not look good for either program to survive such a hold on the once ever-busy calendar,” Tammy noted, adding, however, that soon, Grace began online scouting along with competitive campouts in the backyard with her brother, Tyler.

Although it was known the camping nights were not counting towards Eagle, both remained interested in being outdoors. Online merit badges and meetings filled the quarantine days. Grace sometimes attended five per day between Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. “If she was not in a meeting or merit badge zoom class, she was online searching for merit badge workbooks to prepare for her multiple prerequisites,” Tammy said.

Grace not only kept up with the pace she would have had in traditional scouting, but she was also able to advance in rank via zoom Scoutmaster conferences and the Board of Reviews. 

“Luckily enough, Grace’s second opportunity at summer camp was not taken away by COVID, and scouting continued successfully,” Tammy said.

After achieving all required ranks and earning the merit badges to make her eligible for Eagle rank, Grace proceeded with her Eagle project at approximately the same time as her Girl Scouts Gold project.

Grace’s Girl Scouts Gold project was to rebuild a bridge at the Linn Lions Fairground. With help from her father, Kyle, Travis Greer, and others, Grace’s project required at least 80 hours and, like the Eagle Scout achievement, was something that benefitted the community.

“There was a hole in the bottom, so they had a piece of plywood over it to keep people from stepping through and hurting themselves,” said Grace, who completed the project in the summer of 2021.

“She cut the steel and welded everything herself,” said Kyle. “She did it all.”

Grace learned welding in a class at Linn High School and augmented that with practice in BSA.

“She was a little hesitant to start with because she’d never used a MIG welder,” Kyle noted.

Grace likened the bridge to how Girl Scouts move from one rank to the next. Thus the name of the project is “Bridging to Gold.”

“That’s why it was pretty awesome that she found this dilapidated bridge that she could repair,” Tammy said.

After completing the project, Grace became the first in Girl Scouts Troop 71097 to earn Gold.

Unfortunately, Girl Scouts didn’t survive the pandemic. “Jody (Wieberg) Morton was our main leader, and she’s out of it,” said Tammy. “That affected our participation because she had four of the girls that were participating, and it sort of dwindled. COVID hit Girl Scouts hard, so they are on a break, but I’ve been in contact with some of the main leaders at the council level, trying to get it back up and running.”

Grace decided to obtain Girl Scouts Gold as her troop was becoming less and less active.

Without wasting time, Grace jumped right into her Eagle project. In an letter to begin the process, Grace wrote: “These years of experience in scouting have taught me numerous lessons, talents, strengths, and weaknesses, and helped me with building a sustainable foundation for my future, along with prominent and extraordinary character skills that will empower me to serve others as it is meant in the scout oath and law. All of these things will assist me in proudly serving as an Eagle Scout as I go on and live outside of scouts.”

“She knew she wanted to give back to her school and church, making the project recipient easy for her,” said Tammy, adding the choice was made in part because St. George sponsors BSA Troop 3017. “Next was what to do, and with some searching and keeping her school needs in mind, she came up with the map project.”

This was a huge undertaking, and the map of the United States painted on the concrete behind St. George School has been used often, according to teachers’ accounts.

“We looked up good Eagle Scout projects, and that one stuck out to me,” Grace said, adding she had trouble in the fourth grade identifying states and believed this project would benefit students.

There are no labels on the states, which are painted in different colors. “A teacher could be like, ‘go find Missouri,’ and then students can point to it or stand on it or something like that,” said Grace. “They can use sidewalk chalk on the map to identify capitals.”

Grace began collecting supplies but left for a BSA trip to Colorado before jumping back into it. “Every night in July 2022, we went to the school and worked on it,” Tammy added.

They used a stencil to outline the states and sprayed dots, which were then connected with chalk. That was followed by paint to outline each state and later filled in using green, blue, red, and yellow colors.

“There was a shortage of paint, so we didn’t have very many selections,” said Tammy. “We tried to buy locally, but we couldn’t find heavy-duty commercial paint.”

Grace said the best part of this experience was working with new materials. “I’ve never worked with paint like that,” she added. “I like doing hands-on crafts and things like that.”

Tammy noted the most challenging aspect was painting the map consistently. “You’d come back, and somebody had driven in our area,” she said.

Windy days also wrought havoc on the stencil papers. “I went to work in the rain one time, and the entire stencil was gone,” said Tammy. “So, she painted each and every little tiny hole.”

Each day would bring a different color paint. “We did that until all the colors were done,” said Tammy. “Then we came back and did all that over again because you had to have a second coat to make sure it was done very well.”

Grace and Tammy got help from Lori Kixmiller on the map behind the school, which starts behind the extended care area and goes halfway to the playground.

“It spans several car lengths,” said Tammy.

There was a deadline because Grace and Tammy wanted to complete the project before school started. “We were privileged that they allowed us to do it,” Tammy said.

On the road to Eagle Scout, Grace was nominated at 14 to join the Order of the Arrow and later joined the Brotherhood. She also earned special awards for the mile swim in 2019 and 2021 and was accepted and participated in BSA National Youth Leadership Training in 2021.

To be eligible to earn Eagle, a scout must earn 21 merit badges, including 14 required merit badges and seven electives. Grace has earned 67 merit badges, including First Aid, Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in Society, Citizenship in the World, Communication, Cooking, Personal Fitness, Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Science, Personal Management, Swimming, Camping, Family Life, Painting, Basketry, Chemistry, Leatherwork, Dog Care, Salesmanship, Public Health, Collections, Scout Heritage, Genealogy, Art, Law, Archaeology, Wilderness Survival, American Heritage, Entrepreneurship, American Cultures, American Labor, American Business, Inventing, Fingerprinting, Scholarship, Safety, Animation, Mammal Study, Engineering, Graphic Arts, Traffic Safety, Veterinary Medicine, Soil and Water Conservation, Climbing, Rowing, Astronomy, Model Design, Space Exploration, Dentistry, Disabilities Awareness, Search And Rescue, Pets, Geocaching, Medicine, Woodwork, Energy, Canoeing, Automotive Maintenance, Signs-Signals-Codes, Aviation, Chess, Music, Public Speaking, Composite Materials, and Fire Safety.

Since its inception in 1911, only 4% of Boy Scouts have earned the rank of Eagle. Grace is also part of an elite group of Girl Scouts to have earned Gold, with only 6% having achieved that honor.

“I love scouting, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to earn Eagle and Gold,” Grace said.

She wrote in her candidate application that her journey “was everything but easy but everything hard in life comes at a price, and if it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.”

An Eagle Court of Honor at St. George will be held in April.

Grace was honored to receive the American and Missouri flags that were flying over the capitol on the day she earned Eagle Scout.

She also will be honored with a House Resolution on Feb. 27. Rep. Bruce Sassmann, in an email to Tammy, noted, “Congrats to Grace. I would be happy to introduce Grace on the floor of the House and record her name in the House journal.”

In addition to scouting, Grace is involved with FFA and several other clubs at Linn High School. While she was a student at St. George, she played volleyball and basketball and will run track for the first time in the spring at Linn R-2. She also works three part-time jobs.

In support of her quest for the rank of Eagle, Troop 17 Scoutmaster Travis Greer, Troop 17 Assistant Scoutmaster Micheale Kroeger, Troop 3017 Committee Chair and Charter Organization Representative Debbie Backes, St. George School Principal Lisa Grellner sent letters of reference to the Eagle Scout Board of Review.

All of them provided examples of Grace’s commitment and dedication to scouting, along with her character and integrity.

Grace is in the A+ Program and has been taking dual-credit general education courses through State Tech. Grace intends to pursue a career as a cardio-thoracic or neurosurgeon.