Aaron Robert EILERTS

EILERTS, BECKER, BOSTON, HARSTICK, OLSEN, HANSEN, WORDEKAMPER, BATENHORST

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/14/2008 at 23:55:45

Aaron Robert Eilerts, the son of Robert and Carol (Becker) was born February 24, 1994, in West Point, Nebraska. He attended West Point Elementary through 5th grade and after moving to Eagle Grove with his family in June of 2005, he attended Robert Blue Middle School through 8th grade. Aaron was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Eagle Grove. He was baptized and received his First Communion at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in West Point, NE. He served as an altar server, sang in the Sacred Heart Youth Choir and taught bible school. Aaron was on the “A” Honor Roll all eight years of school; recently voted 9th Grade Class Treasurer; served as a CIA Agent with Character Counts Youth Leadership; involved with Destination Imagination and was also a part of the musicals: “The King & I” , “Wizard of OZ” and “Elves & the Shoemaker”. Aaron also participated in band, choir, swim team for 6 years, 7th grade football and track and 8th grade cross country. He was the first person to sing the National Anthem at the new elementary school gym and performed for many local high school sporting events. He volunteered in his community; including time at the senior citizens center and Rotary Ann Nursing Home and was the founder of a project called Pillowcases for Patients, sewing pillowcases for children in hospitals all over central Iowa. Aaron had been a Boy Scout for 8 years and was a member of the Humboldt Boy Scout Troop #108, recently achieving Life Scout Ranking, awarded the Order of the Arrow, was a National Leadership Trainer and had received numerous merit badges. Aaron received numerous awards of recognition and achievement which include the following: Altar Server, American Citizenship Award, Pahuk Pride Youth Leadership Training, Who’s Who Among Outstanding Middle School Students (2005-2006 & 2007-2008), Iowa Celebration of Character – Worthy Model of Character – state-wide runner up, and the President’s Education Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Aaron loved sewing pillow cases, cooking, gardening, fishing, painting, camping, and putting together puzzles. He also enjoyed music – playing the guitar, flute, piano, and taking voice lessons. Aaron loved his pets and spending time with his parents – playing catch with his dad, gardening with his mom or riding bikes as a family. He also collected Elvis and Wizard of OZ memorabilia and stuffed animals.

Aaron R. Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove and formerly of West Point, NE., died from injuries sustained in a tornado that passed through the Little Sioux Boy Scout Camp near Onawa, Iowa, on Wednesday, June 11, 2008. He was preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, Ralph and Dorothy Becker; paternal grandfather, James Eilerts; great-grandparents, James and Lorena Olsen, William and Irene Harstick, August and Clella Eilerts and Otto and Annie Becker; uncle, David Becker and 2 cousins, Tracy Eilerts and Derek Hansen. Aaron is survived by his parents, Robert and Carol Eilerts of Eagle Grove; grandmother, Janice Eilerts of West Point, NE; aunts and uncles: Mary (Becker) Boston and husband Earl of West Point, NE, Beverly (Becker) Hansen and husband Garry of West Point, NE, William Eilerts and wife Pam of Norfolk, NE, Michael Eilerts and wife Connie of West Point, NE, Susan (Eilerts) Wordekamper and husband Kenneth of West Point, NE, Lori (Eilerts) Batenhorst and husband Dean of Bennington, NE; cousins, great-aunts and uncles and other relatives and friends.

A Vigil Service will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 15, 2008, at the new Middle School/ Elementary Gymnasium in Eagle Grove, with visitation starting at 2:00 p.m. until the service begins. Father Paul Lippstock will officiate. Funeral services will be held Monday, June 16, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in West Point, Nebraska with Father Jerald Gonderinger officiating. Visitation will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Stokley Funeral Home in West Point, NE. Burial will be in Mount Hope Cemetery in West Point. Foust Funeral Home, Eagle Grove and Stokely Funeral Home, West Point in charge of the arrangements. Memorials may be left to the discretion of the family.

http://www.funeralplan.com/foustfh/obits?id=135616

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Des Moines Register, Iowa, copyright
June 13, 2008
Tornado sent truck flying into camp

By LEE ROOD and MARK SIEBERT

Blenco, Ia. - "Be Prepared" is the motto of the Boy Scouts of America.

Wednesday evening, the 100 youth and 25 adults from Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota attending a weeklong camp at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa demonstrated the motto's meaning:

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, a tornado National Weather Service officials classified as an EF-3 tore through the 1,800-acre camp. Wind speeds from the twister that was on the ground for 14 miles reached 145 mph. Four teenagers were killed and 42 were hospitalized with injuries ranging from serious head trauma to cuts and bruises.
The tornado was one of seven reported in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa Wednesday night.

When Ed Osius, chief of the Blencoe volunteer fire department, reached the site, the Scouts were helping aid the injured and locate victims. Gov. Chet Culver on Thursday called the Scouts heroes.

Two years ago, Osius said the Scouts did a disaster drill at the ranch. The mock disaster was a plane crash, which included surprise explosions, faux injuries and shipped-in airplane parts.
"All the kids participating got merit badges," Osius said.

Wednesday's disaster wasn't a drill.

The campers took shelter in one of the ranches' two shelters when the tornado warning sounded. Roughly half of the 93 Scouts and 25 camp workers took shelter in one bunker and mostly escaped injury. The other half of the group was in the second bunker called the north shelter, where the four Scouts died, Osius said.

The dead are Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa; Josh Fennen, 13, of Omaha; Sam Thomsen, 13; of Omaha; and Ben Petrzilka, 14, of Omaha.
Forty-two of the injured were sent to area hospitals from Omaha to Sioux City.

Shortly after the campers got into the shelter, a camp leader got a flashlight and headed outside. He came back in immediately and told everyone to get under tables, said Rob Logsdon, 15, of Lawton.

"The next thing I know all the doors swung open and the wind was blowing so hard it popped my ears," Logsdon said in a trembling voice. He said he was hit by a table and his legs were trapped underneath.
Zach Jessen scrambled under a table just before the tornado hit.

Jessen said he remembers the noise of the rain. The rocks. The freight-train sound of the tornado. He also remembers when a truck was tossed into the stone chimney, knocking it into the bunk house.

"When it hit, it sounded like an explosion because it fell directly on the cement," he said.

"I was just praying and hoping I would make it through," said Jessen, whose right arm on Thursday was scraped and swollen, his wrist sported a white hospital bracelet from a brief stay in a hospital in Onawa.
The tornado ripped the roof off the building and the camp leader's truck was thrown 50 feet from its parking place, where it struck the building. Several of the Scouts were injured by flying bricks from the collapsed chimney.

"Kids were giving each other first aid and when we looked around afterward all the trees in the area around the shelter had been ripped from their trunks," Logsdon said. "Kids were pulling bricks off each other. There was one camp member who was covered under a pile of bricks and wasn't moving. I assumed he had died."
Jessen said there was some screaming in the chaos afterward, but mostly Scouts were trying to help the wounded.

Jessen eventually found time to make a cell phone call to his mother, Gayle, and then his father, who were speeding to the scene along with other worried parents.

Al Jessen said his son called a couple of hours after the tornado hit. "He said, 'Dad, I'm in the Onawa hospital.' "

Logsdon said he called his parents, who were at a brother's Little League baseball game in Sioux City. Logsdon's parents then began calling other parents before they headed south toward the campsite.
Osius said the tornado flattened the home of the permanent scoutmaster at the camp. The scoutmaster, his wife and infant child and a teenager were all injured, Osius said.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff flew over the ranch Thursday and said it didn't look like the Scouts had a chance. He said it looked as though a bowling ball rolled through the valley.

Some parents had a difficult time finding out information about their children. Some parents waited as long as six hours before learning the condition and location of their campers.
Lloyd Roitstein, executive director of the Mid-America Council, said a communications command post was set up Wednesday evening and a telephone number given for law enforcement so families could check the status of their children. But he said because of the chaos, it took a long time to track all the campers and get in touch with families.

"We responded as fast as we could for those families," Roitstein said.

An assistant scoutmaster from South Sioux City, Jeff Calhoun, said communication after the tornado was "completely unorganized." He said the lack of information left parents tense and frustrated.
The lack of information and the response time began to emerge as an issue Thursday morning. Jim Saunders, public spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said he wasn't called about the matter until 11 p.m. Wednesday.

"I can't explain the breakdown," Saunders said. "There are always after actions that need to be taken in events like these. All I can say is that we'll do better the next time."

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Eagle Grove Eagle, July 4, 2007

Thirteen-year-old Aaron Eilerts is a young man of many talents, ambitions, and goals. In addition to being a member of the Eagle Grove Swim Team, landing a role in the The Paddlewheel Players upcoming production of Wizard of Oz, taking private voice and piano lessons, sewing pillowcases which he gives away to hospitals and people suffering from illnesses, making countless crafts, and being a member of the Mid-America Council Boy Scout Troop 108 in Humboldt, Eilerts can now add to his list of accomplishments a certificate of achievement for the Pahuk Pride Youth Leadership Training Conference at the Little Sioux Scout Reservation in Little Sioux, Iowa.

Eilerts has been a member of the Boy Scouts for four years.

“I heard about all the fun things they did, like racing cars, and it made me want to join,” he said.

Eilerts started as a Cub Scout, eventually working his way up to Boy Scout Status, and is currently only two badges away from becoming an Eagle Scout.

With so much enthusiasm and passion for what Boy Scouts stands for, Eilerts set his sights even higher, striving to become a camp leader. Aaron completed his week-long training session with 99 other boys from across the Mid-America council. He spent a full week at Little Sioux camp in Nebraska, learning how to keep meetings under control, different ways of teaching classes, and public speaking techniques. With the completion of this course on Saturday, June 16, 2007, Eilerts is now considered a qualified camp leader and can train other scouts at camps across Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

Eilert’s goal of being a troop leader was inspired by many ambitions.

“People look up to you when you’re a troop leader,” he said.

With the title, however, also comes responsibility…one that Eilerts is excited to accept. It means keeping troops in line and on-talk, and always being prepared for anything, like if a presenter is missing, doing the job for him.

“It was fun going through the (leadership) classes. If I learn these things now, then maybe I can become staff later and teach at places like Camp Cedars and Nebraska Summer Camp,” he added.

Eilerts has experienced many adventures since joining Boy Scout Troop 108. They have gone canoeing in the Boundary Waters, camping in the wilderness, winter camping…and the list goes on. Plans are already underway for a trip to Florida in 2008 where these young men and their leaders will spend time scuba diving and learning such things as how to repair coral reef.

Also exciting for Eilerts is his recent acceptance into the Order of the Arrow and Scouting’s National Honor Society. It is a very prestigious group and is one of the highest honors a Boy Scout can earn on his journey towards becoming an Eagle Scout. While Eilerts was nominated and elected by his scouting peers, not much can really be said to the public about this respected, but private, group. Those selected are those who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives, and by such conduct, cause others to emulate their actions.

Eilerts did say that as a member of the Order of the Arrow, one is required to spend one night alone, in silence, reflecting on their goals and accomplishments. They are given very little food, and spend one day giving of themselves, working hard on important projects.

Eilerts mother, Carol, said it’s a group that challenges their members to focus on strengthening their mental and inner strengths.

Eilerts has achieved so much in his young life, but he’s got goals for the future he’s working towards accomplishing. When he turns 18, he’s hoping to have a Boy Scout Troop regionalized and fully active, with him as the Assistant Scout Master.

“I really enjoy Boy Scouts…the camping, canoeing…there are so many fun times,” he said.