Riley Symicek of Boy Scout Troop 9005 received an Eagle Scout Award at the Sept. 6 Cottage Grove City Council Meeting. Eagle Scout, the highest rank a young scout can reach, is only accomplished by approximately 5% of scouts. Receiving a plaque, congratulations, and handshakes from members of the council, Symicek was introduced at the meeting by Mayor Myron Bailey. 

“We’re here this evening to celebrate what will be another Eagle Scout here in the City of Cottage Grove,” said Bailey. “He is actually from a troop out of Woodbury, but lives here in Cottage Grove and goes to Park High School, and we’re very excited to be here tonight to celebrate this achievement.”  

Bailey added, “Whether it’s the Girl Scouts Gold Award or the Boy Scouts Eagle Award, we take that very seriously and hold it up to high standards in our community.”  

He noted a hallway at City Hall permanently lists the names of all Eagle and Gold Award recipients in the city, including himself and his son, as well as members of Councilmember Dave Thiede’s family.  

“It’s a pretty exciting time that we recognize you for this,” said Bailey. 

The plaque reads “Riley Symicek, congratulations on attaining the rank of Eagle Scout through Troop 9005, Cottage Grove, MN, presented this 6th day of September, 2023 from the City of Cottage Grove, Myron Bailey, Mayor.” 

“On behalf of myself, the council, all of the staff and citizens of Cottage Grove, congratulations,” concluded Bailey, before turning the microphone over to Symicek to describe the details of his Eagle Scout project. 

“My project was a little different than I’ve noticed with Scouts in other things,” said Symicek. “What I decided to do was make care packages in the form of backpacks with contents in them. We put in some stuff that you normally wouldn’t see donated to different organizations for people in need. We packaged them together, 60 of them, and sent them off to Listening House, the homeless day shelter in Saint Paul.”  

He said they passed the backpacks out to residents at the shelter, hoping to put a smile on their faces and let them know that help is available from the community. 

Symicek’s family joined him with the council on the floor at the front of the City Council Chambers for photos and congratulations.