Anthony Luis Ward of Jim Thorpe was honored Saturday, April 6 by becoming the 65th Eagle Scout of Troop 555. Sean Luke Bevilacqua and Bradley Thomas Buzzard also attained their Eagle award in the court of honor.

Ward, 17, is the son of Michele and Dan Ward. He attends Jim Thorpe Area High School where he is a member of the junior class and a member of the power lifting team.

The court of honor was held at Christ Lutheran Church in Penn Forest Township. For his Eagle Scout project, Ward refurbished and repaired the children’s playground at the church.

His project consisted of power washing all of the equipment, fencing and picnic table. In addition, he replaced the swings and chains and anchored the swing set. Ward scrapped and repainted the metal airplane as well. Lastly, he built a retaining wall and spread new mulch.

Ward raised $672.50 for his project, which took him and his fellow Scouts 134.5 hours to complete.

One of Ward’s accomplishments as a Scout was to serve as senior patrol leader. He credits this role as being an important step in his development.

“As senior patrol leader it forced me to talk in front of a group of people, not only making me better at public speaking but a more social person,” he said. “I can approach most people without being nervous to talk to them, but before then I’d be a total mess just to say an order to a waiter or waitress at a restaurant.”

Ward gave a special thanks to his father, Scoutmaster Dan Ward.

“Now my dad is the Scoutmaster here for those of you who don’t know, but he also works full time,” he said. “Even at home, he sits there with four laptops, with two writing emails for Scouts and the other two for his project at work. He still manages to cook a half decent dinner and wake up a 4:30 the next morning.”

Ward said he never really told his dad how much he appreciated everything he did for him and gave him his mentor pin as a token of his appreciation.