By Zack Magnuson, Special to The Kansas City Star

As far back as I can remember, summer has always been a time to lounge back and do as little as possible before school comes back and replaces sleeping in with early morning band rehearsals.

This summer has been almost exactly the same. Except for this summer I’ve accomplished a tremendous feat along with three of my closest friends Cole B, Dustin I, and Ben M. We all earned our Eagle. That alone is enough to say we’ve accomplished something enormous, but that’s not all.

This summer was also filled with nice, long, relaxing, lazy summer camps, and I loved every second of it. First off was the National Youth Leadership Training course (NYLT aka Brownsea).

This training course is held each summer in June at Camp Naish (and other Scout Camps around the country). Having gone there in 2008 as a student, I looked forward to the challenge of serving on staff there in 2009.

Guides from our troop were Billy M, the 2009 Course Senior Patrol Leader; Zack R, Andy B. Lucky participants from our troop were Sam P and Cameron M. Overall the camp was a great success.

The campers got enough knowledge from the presentations to come away with something useful. But it wasn’t so overwhelming that they didn’t enjoy themselves. To sum it all up in a couple of words would be, six days well spent. I am looking forward to staffing there again in 2010.

Next on my summer camps list was our trip to Bartle. Chess, cards and peach floats galore are what most people would remember it by. But for four of us, one of the most important days of our lives occurred at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation – a memory that will be engraved in our minds for the rest of our lives.

As I mentioned earlier, we all earned our Eagle Scouts. It was as if a giant weight had been lifted off our chests, and a rush of self-satisfaction filled all of us. About 10 years of working and learning finally paid off, and yes it does feel as good as one might think it should.

Enough about me, there were lots of rank advancements, merit badges earned, elevations in the tribe of Mic-O-Say, and many other fun activities. There was water polo, boat races, trips to Ico all just off the top of my head. It truly was a summer to remember.

Zack Magnuson, an Eagle Scout 2009, is in Troop 201. He lives in Olathe.