Gowtham Yenduri was honored at an Eagle Scout Court of Honor on December 29 at the Niantic Community Church. Gowtham has been a member of Scout Troop 24 of Niantic since December 2005. In addition to the required 21 merit badges and an extensive Eagle Scout service project he completed seven extra merit badges. His service project consisted of the construction and installation of benches and several large garden boxes at Camp Harkness for Handicapped in Waterford. The garden boxes will be used in the ARC Program by day campers for their planting projects through the seasons. Two garden box-bench combinations were created for an area near the beach where there had been no benches. They also will act as a barrier to protect kids and campers from falling off a declined area. The service project required a total of 470 man-hours.

The Court of Honor program was conducted by Thomas Cook, an Eagle Scout and now an adult member of Troop 24. Other members of Troop 24 assisted in the ceremony. Connecticut state representative Ed Jutila presented Gowtham with a citation from the Connecticut General Assembly. Gowtham presented mother and father pins to his parents, Padma and Srinivas Yenduri. He also presented mentor pins to Scoutmaster Jeffrey Greer, Robin Greer, and Jack Cook who were significant contributors to Gowtham’s development on his Trail to Eagle.

As part of the closing ceremony a slide show entitled “Ballard of an Eagle Scout” depicted Gowtham’s association with Troop 24. In addition to his record of accomplishments there were pictures from many events and campouts. After the ceremony there was a social hour with refreshments.