Belleville West senior, others honored for becoming Eagle Scouts

Belleville West senior Jacob Noll was one of the 142 Eagle Scouts who were recognized at the recent awards banquet at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Fairview Heights. The 18-year-old has been deaf his whole life, but he doesn’t want any special treatment.

Jacob’s Eagle Scout project was a wheelchair-accessible picnic table. He said he wanted to do a project that would help people with disabilities, because he wants anyone who has a disability to feel like a regular person.

His picnic table is for anyone who uses a wheelchair. It is at Metter Memorial Park in Columbia.

“I thought if the person uses a wheelchair to get around, he or she would need a way to sit at the picnic table to be able to enjoy a picnic with their loved ones,” Jacob said. “I want to help others so they can live their lives as normal as possible.”

The idea for the table took root in his mind because of his own disability. It wasn’t until he was 12 years old that he learned he wasn’t a “regular kid. I have been totally deaf my whole life,” Jacob said.

His mother wanted him to live as normal of a life as possible. She didn’t teach him sign language. Instead, she put him in Moog Center, a school for the deaf in St. Louis.

After four years at the school, his mother put him into a regular school and got a speech therapist to work with him. And his mother also worked with him, he said.

“I read lips. I had to learn to listen without reading lips,” Jacob said, smiling.

In the beginning, he said life for him was not so easy and his main question was — “Why me?”

Now, Jacob said he knows how to stand up for himself and is confident in his abilities.

“I know how to work hard. I really think it was kind of a blessing that I was born deaf. I have a different perspective on life,” he said. “I use to be mad at the world, because I was deaf. I didn’t want to talk on the phone or go anywhere, because I looked different and talked different.”

“It took a while to overcome my fear and gain confidence in myself,” Jacob said. “I learned how to be a man and how to survive outside from my experiences as a scout.”

Noll and the other young men who achieved the highest rank in Boy Scouts were all dressed in full uniform. It was their night to be recognized for becoming Eagle Scouts.

“It’s very tough to get. They have to earn a certain amount of merit badges and do a community project,” said John Goodwin, one of the judges who ranked the service projects.

Service projects for the boys included a variety of things such as renovating complete kitchens, building various things for individuals and the community. Shane Douglas of Boy Scout Troop 323 installed grave markers to honor the 99 Civil War Veterans that are buried in Waterloo.

“The Scouts have to demonstrate that they are living by the principals of Scout law in their daily life,” Gibson said

St. Clair County Sheriff Richard Watson was the keynote speaker for the banquet. After expressing his praises to them for their accomplishment, he told the young men the sky is their limit. Watson said the training and experience they get as Scouts has more than adequately prepared them for success in whatever they choose to do.

Jacob said he uses headphones and listens to music and watches Netflix on his tablet every night like any other kid.

His desire to do outdoor stuff led him to join the Cub Scouts.

“I had to learn how to survive outside,” he said.

From there, he kept climbing the ranks to become an Eagle Scout.

“It took hundreds of hours,” he said. “It’s pretty incredible to be recognized for our hard work.”

Jacob has been in public school since the first grade, he said.

At the deaf school, Jacob said he learned “how to make sense of my handicap and how to self advocate for myself.”

He uses a cochlear implant —an electronic medical device that does the work of damaged parts of the inner ear to provide sound signals to the brain.

“Sometimes I have to stop and tell people I am deaf,” Jacob said. “It takes so much energy for me to hear and talk.”

Jacob’s best friend Camden Westfall also became an Eagle Scout. He built a Gaga ball pit for young people to play at First Baptist Church in Columbia.

“The kids in the youth group wanted something to do other than volleyball,” he said. “I felt they would have fun with the Gaga Pit.”

Camden said he first encountered a Gaga pit when he went to Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia three years ago. He enjoyed it and wanted the children in his church youth group to experience it.

“I want them to play and have fun whenever they have time to go out and play in it,” he said.

His mom, Cindy Westfall, said she was proud of both boys’ ideas for service projects.

“Their ideas are different, but they both serve the community in different ways,” she said.

Westfall said her son had to seek donations from local businesses and have a child dinner fundraiser to raise the money to complete his project. She said he had to manage the money and get people to help him build the Gaga pit.

Westfall likes the discipline and structure her sons learned from being involved in Scouts and said she believes the training has prepared Noll and the others to be successful in whatever they choose to do with their lives.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 10:31 AM with the headline "Belleville West senior, others honored for becoming Eagle Scouts."