NYM student is a member of the Ottertail Boy Scouts

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Although Aidan Krosch completed his Eagle Scout project in the fall of 2024, he still had some requirements that needed to be completed and submitted to the Eagle Board of Review. During an Eagle Ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 25, he was honored as one of the latest Eagle Scouts at Scout Troop 307 of Ottertail.

Krosch has been a Scout since first grade and has always enjoyed learning new skills and making memories along the way. One memory that stands out for him is a time at Many Point Scout Camp, near Ponsford, Minn., where he was working on his climbing merit badge and forgot to put on proper rock climbing shoes. With gripless, and flat shoes, he ended up climbing to the top of the rock tower anyway, making for a humorous memory.

“It was fun and funny,” said Krosch. “It was the best experience, there is no grip on those shoes! It was funny.”

For his Eagle Project, Krosch created a flag retirement box for American flags in the community. When a storm knocking down a pine tree onto his home and even into his bedroom window several years ago, he decided to make use of the tree by turning it into slabs and eventually into boards with the help of his grandfather.

“I heard that the VFW were storing their retired flags in bags, so I was like, ‘you know what, let’s do something nicer with them,’ and there are so many flags,” said Krosch. “As a troop and a pack, we’ve been retiring flags for a long time and when we retire them, we do a proper ceremony with them and after the ashes were cooled, we took the grommets from them and made tokens of remembrance for veterans.”

Krosch began with taking measurements, drawing the design and layout, and buying the stain, wheels, screws and plaque for the box. Once the boards were cut, he was able to work on assembling them with his grandpa and finally stained it for a finished look. They then took the retirement box to Trinity Lutheran Church in NY Mills where it has been available for retiring flags ever since.

“It helps the community because there is a place to put flags that need to be retired that maybe they’ve had and have held onto for a while, so I wanted to help out by saying ‘hey, we can help you retire these flags properly,’ there is a place to put them,” he said.

Since the box was installed, they have taken them to be retired once at a pack meeting where they retired 50 flags. He hopes that people will continue to use the box, which acts as a place of dignity to retire the American flag for any community member.

In addition to being an Eagle Scout, Krosch remembers his time in scouting fondly and looks forward to the next few years continuing his scout education. He recommends that anyone interested find out more and put their name in to try out scouting.

“It’s fun, you can meet new people, gain some skills that you never thought you could gain, and it’s a fun way to learn about certain things like how to pitch a tent, or how to start a fire,” he said. “It would be great to have them join so they can learn and understand how to do these skills. There’s great adventure in scouting.”