On June 4, Thomas Elliot Phelan of East Penn Township was recognized for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout at a Court of Honor ceremony.

Thomas attained the rank of Life Scout with Boy Scout Troop 145 of Mahoning Valley, led by Scoutmaster Ben Glueck. When that troop disbanded in December 2015 Thomas reached his goal of becoming an Eagle with Troop 82 of Lehighton headed by Scot Wingert.Thomas completed 25 merit badges in a variety of subject areas, as well as his Eagle Scout project, a woodland playground benefiting the Carbon County Environmental Educational Center.The Court of Honor took place at Trinity Lutheran Church, the sponsor of Troop 82.Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein presented Thomas with a resolution from the commissioners' office. Commissioner William O'Gurek presented a flag that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol Building in Thomas' honor by request of U.S. Congressman Matt Cartwright.Other presentations were made by the Mayor Tom Mase of Lehighton; Harry J. Wynn III, from the Shoemaker-Haydt American Legion Post 314; and Shawn Keiser of Trinity Lutheran Church, who also serves as the troop's charter representative.Jeff Csatari, editor at large of Scouting magazine, presented Thomas with a signed copy of "Norman Rockwell's Boy Scouts of America," a book he co-authored with his father Joseph Csatari. Joseph Csatari became the second official artist of the BSA after working with Norman Rockwell. The book is a collection of the paintings by both BSA artists chronicling the history of Scouting in America.Franklin Klock, naturalist at the environmental education center, who envisioned a play area there, spoke of the significance of the structure Thomas built. He described how children from urban areas who come to the center are now put at ease by the familiarity of the play structure in an environment that is otherwise completely unfamiliar and disorienting to them. Klock refers to the play area as the "urban-woodland interface."Thomas' brother Peter, also an Eagle Scout, had the honor of pinning him with his Eagle medal. Thomas used his time at the speaker's podium to share some fond Scouting memories and to thank his Scoutmasters as well as Eagle Scout coordinator, Judy Wingert. He also thanked Bryan Buffington, Lehighton Area High School band director, who served as master of ceremonies.Thomas presented Eagle parent pins to his mother and father, Fenna Millen and John Phelan. He presented a mentor pin to his former Scoutmaster Ben Glueck, who hiked and backpacked with Thomas and Troop 145 over 200 miles in Pennsylvania.In a year's time with the help of Scouts, family and friends, Thomas raised over $1,100 in funds to help cover the $1,300 cost of building the woodland playground at the environmental education center. Also contributing to the project were local businesses: Lehighton Hardware, Marzen's Hardware, and Lowe's all of Lehighton, and the Home Depot in Whitehall as well. Both Lowe's and Rita's Italian Ice allowed Thomas to host fundraisers on site.Because of the clay soil where the project is located, almost 2 tons of concrete were needed to support six climbing platforms. Thomas also added cargo netting as a challenge for children to climb across like spiders on a web and repurposed a corrugated tube to climb through like animals in a burrow. He had the help of 32 volunteers who contributed 440 hours to the building of the project and fundraising.With the rank of Eagle Scout now on his uniform, Thomas will be spending his summer as the athletic director at Boy Scout Camp Trexler in Jonas, before continuing his education at Syracuse University. As an Orangeman he plans to study music industry and performance jazz on the bass guitar.