Reaching the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is not something too many young men are able to accomplish. So, when it does occur, there is a reason to celebrate.

Thursday night, a group of Vermilion Parish citizens, some who were former Boy Scouts, while the rest were those who knew what BSA stands for, hosted a banquet called “A Gathering of Eagles.” The banquet was created to honor a few men from Vermilion Parish who earned the Eagle Scout rank. The gathering was held at Magdalen Place in Abbeville.

A handful of Eagle Scouts spoke to the crowd about what it meant to reach the top rank.

Kenneth (Ken) Taylor accomplished his Eagle Scout rank in 1949. In the same year as Taylor, Kenneth Morvant, Charles A “Borne” and Robert Marceaux were the next four to reach in the rank in the parish after Leo Broussard in 1932.

“We learned a lot of things, and we also learned about ourselves,” Taylor said. “What I think is most important was that Scouting was an avenue that paralleled our education system in Vermilion Parish.”

Writing the Eagle Scout rank on his resume helped him tremendously, he said. He said it gave him an edge in applying for jobs over the next person who did not have the rank.

Robert Marceaux said Scouting helped turn him into a man. His father died when he was 7 and he was raised by his sister. When he joined Scouting, he discovered he inherited 24 fathers that he would not have had.

“They taught me how to be a man,” said Marceaux “You never know many lives you touch when you get involved in scouting.”

Since 1930, there have been only 184 young men who have reached the Eagle Scout rank in Vermilion Parish. Thousands have joined Boy Scouts over the last 40 years, but only a few stuck it out to reach the rank.

According to the Evangeline Area Council of Boy Scouts, the first Eagle Scout in Vermilion Parish was Leo Broussard from Kaplan in 1932. He was in Troop 81.

In 2010, there were four young men who achieved the rank from Troop 229 - Gavin Faulk, Paul Hunter LeBleu, Nicholas Peter Mergist and Carson J. Schexnaider.

Scouting really became popular in Vermilion Parish in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1959, there were 21 Eagle Scouts.

The most popular time of scouting in the parish was from 1960-69. There were a total of 59 Eagle Scouts. Some of those who achieved the ranks in the 1960s were: Charles Dill Jr (1960), Wesley W. Steen (1961), Gerald Sellers (1962), Vann Fortier (1962), David Rogers (1962), Floyd J. Rabassa III (1963), Raywood Mouton (1963), John Degraauw (1965), Paul Edward Piazza (1965), Ronald Webb (1965), Brian and Mark Amy (1966), Lloyd Dore III (1966), Roy R. Theriot Jr. (1966) Kern Myers (1966) and Larry Stakes (1966).

The year 1966 had 10 young men make Eagle Scout, which, however, is not the largest Eagle Scout Class. That honor goes to the year of 1967, which had 13.

After 1967, 1973 produced 10 Eagle Scouts. Vermilion Parish would not have another double-digit year of Eagle Scouts. From 1976 until 2010 there have been 75 Eagle Scouts, which averages to three a year.