Boy Scouts To Honor 4 Brandon Men: Craft, Stowers, Boehmer and Wynn

Julian Craft, Dick Stowers, the Rev. Bill Wynn and the Rev. Fred Boehmer are known to the old-timers of Brandon for their due diligence in the early years of the town’s development, helping to raise the community’s profile as a great place to raise a family, as noted by a Boy Scouts official.

And now, added Molly Blanton, it’s time for today’s youth, and today’s community leaders, to learn about and get reacquainted with these four men who have meant so much to community life in Greater Brandon.

“We felt these four gentleman really epitomized what we look for in building a community, which is in line with the Boy Scouts mission,” said Blanton, a district executive for the Gulf Ridge Council of the Boy Scouts of America. “Boy Scouts is about as community and hometown as you can get.”

At a dinner June 16 at HCC at The Regent, Boehmer, Craft, Stowers and Wynn will each receive the 2011 Soaring Eagle Distinguished Citizen Award. Past recipients are John Sullivan (2009), Dennis Clift (2008), Tom Cox (2007), Clifton C. "Clif" Curry Jr. (2006), Don Berger (2005), John Brengle (2004) and Steve Saunders, the first recipient (2003).

In prior years, the award was given at a luncheon at the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association in Brandon. No award was given in 2010.

Boehmer is a past pastor at the First Baptist Church of Brandon, influential with the other three recipients in helping to form the Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO) in Brandon. Craft, Stowers and Wynn each received the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce Key Citizen Award: Craft in 1977, the first year it was given; Stowers, in 1978; and Wynn, in 1986.

Stowers, the namesake of the elementary school in Lithia, and Craft also each received the Alice B. Tompkins Community Award, presented annually by the Community Roundtable, also known as the Roundtable Charities of Greater Brandon Inc. Stowers received the award in 1976; Craft, in 1983.

“All four men, to different degrees, have been supportive of scouting throughout their lives,” Blanton added. “They’ve been instrumental, too, in different ways in the beginning and ongoing support of ECHO.”

The Boy Scouts, too, have been supportive of ECHO, a food bank and clothes closet that serves more than 700 people a month from the communities of Brandon, Lithia, Dover, Gibsonton, Seffner, Valrico and Riverview. ECHO provides food, clothing and household items to individuals and families in emergency situations up to four times in a lifetime, with the requirement that visits be at least six months apart.

Blanton noted that the scouts each year sponsor and run a major food drive for ECHO.

“This year, the scouts in Southeast Hillsborough County alone collected some 19,000 pounds of food, and most of it was designated for ECHO,” she said. “This year we partnered with  Feeding America, which matched the scouts’ collection of non-perishable food with perishable food needed as well.”

Chaired by Jeff Reynolds and Becky Jordan, the 2011 Soaring Eagle Dinner is scheduled for June 16 at HCC at The Regent, at 6437 Watson Road in Riverview. The social hours is at 6 p.m., followed by dinner an hour later.

"This is a pledge event to support the scouting program in the Greater Brandon area," Blanton said.

The Southeast Hillsborough County unit of the Gulf Ridge Council has 110 units with more than 3,450 scouts. The area includes Brandon, Dover, Seffner, Valrico, Riverview, Mango, Plant City, Lithia, FishHawk, Bloomingdale, Apollo Beach, Ruskin and Wimauma.

Last-minute interest in attending the dinner should be communicated to Blanton at 813-210-1788. Email, mblanton@boyscouting.com. Likewise, those interested in making a pledge donation to support the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Sea Scouts and Venturers, on behalf of this year's Soaring Eagle honorees, should contact Blanton as well.