James Madison, CEO of the Winnebago Scout Council, awards Andrew Vaughn the Distinguished Conservation Service Award at the 100-year celebration of the Ingawanis Adventure Base.

Andrew Vaughn, of Webster City, just earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He is 14 and currently an eighth-grader at Webster City Middle School.

Vaughn also was awarded a national award in September which is called the Distinguished Conservation Service Award. He earned that award by completing nine merit badges dealing with conservation and completing three Eagle Scout level projects.

The first one was fish line recycling bins located at Briggs Woods Park and Lake Cornelia Park. The second one was a Monarch butterfly (milkweed) food plot at Lake Cornelia Park which has 550 plants.

The third was his Eagle Scout project of bat boxes for Briggs Woods Park.

He then had to complete a board of review for the award.

The Distinguished Conservation Service Award took the place of the William Hornaday Award which was started in 1914. Approximately 1,200 scouts have earned the award since its inception. That means an average of 12 scouts have earned the award per year.