For 18-year-old triplets Caleb, Aidan and Noah Kornblum, the Eagle Scout award is the culmination of 11 years spent in the Scouting America program learning valuable life skills and giving back to their community.

Last month, the three young men were presented with the Eagle Scout award during a ceremony at Faust Park. The Eagle Scout Court of Honor celebrates the highest rank a scout can attain within Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts.

A reluctant start

The Kornblum triplets, sons of Brent and Rachael Kornblum, are members of Troop 11 at Congregation Temple Israel. The began their scouting journey when their mother signed them up for Cub Scouts in support of a friend who had started a pack out of Epstein Hebrew Academy. Their older brother Gavin was also involved in scouting, and the triplets followed in his footsteps.

“We went on a couple of campouts and things, and my [older] brother was already in this group, so he was there for most of our scouting experience,” Caleb said. “But really, I guess we kind of just went through the motions.”

Even though they weren’t especially enthusiastic about scouting at first, the triplets continued advancing through the ranks and attending troop meetings, even when scheduling was a challenge. As students at Missouri Torah Institute, from which they recently graduated, their school days often ended later than those at most public schools, making it difficult to balance scouting activities with their academic commitments.

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“It was a big challenge, as well as the demands of school and studying, so it made it hard to prioritize scouts, or at least give more time to it,” Noah said.

The weight of leadership

Scouting became increasingly demanding for the Kornblums as they progressed, especially for Caleb, who took up the role of senior patrol leader, putting him in charge of the troop. This required him to devote nearly all of his free time to planning meetings while still advancing himself.

“I remember many nights where I simply broke down and had panic attacks from the stress,” Caleb said in his Eagle Scout acceptance speech.

Caleb considered leaving the program but was encouraged to stay by Rabbi Menachem Tendler of U. City Shul.

“He told me he didn’t think that there was any reason for me to stop,” Caleb said. “A foundational thing that my parents always wanted to instill in us is that when you commit to something, you have to give it your all. You can’t give up just because it’s hard.”

Meeting Eagle rank requirements

The boys continued working toward Eagle rank, no small feat for any scout. To earn scouting’s highest honor, they had to complete 21 merit badges, spend at least six months as a Life Scout, serve in a troop leadership role, and plan and lead a community service project, all while living by the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Meeting those requirements demanded hours of dedication each week, but the Kornblums were determined to finish what they had started.

“I think that was something that at least I could say I had done, rather than leaving things up to chance, but saying, ‘Hey, you actually committed, you did the work, you put in the effort,’ and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do that,” Noah said.

Faith meets scouting

The triplets faced additional obstacles on their path to Eagle because they are religiously observant. Earning rank advancements required a certain number of camping nights, but many of those campouts took place over Shabbat, preventing the boys from fully participating and making it more difficult to meet the requirements.

But through meticulous planning and commitment, they were able to get the campouts needed to advance in the program, which opened the door to Eagle.

Giving back through service

Next, the Kornblums needed to plan and put together projects that would help their community in some way.

Caleb looked close to home for his project. He spoke with the manager of the Green Center, a nonprofit environmental organization in University City, where his family lives, and decided to build new planters for their garden.

Noah focused on improving his school community. He created a boardwalk connecting Missouri Torah Institute to an adjoining neighborhood to make it easier and safer for families to get across.

Aidan combined St. Louis history with family ties. After consulting his grandmother, who works at Faust Park, he built a brick pathway and a firewood rack for a cabin in the park’s Historic Village.

Though the three projects served different purposes, each reflected an important part of the Kornblums’ lives and will continue to benefit others for years to come. Completing them was not without challenges, from warped wood and logistical complications to days of intense heat, but the boys pushed through, determined to finish what they had started.

“It’s important to take seriously what you’re doing, but also be able to enjoy the process,” Aidan said. “There are days I didn’t like what I was doing. It was 90 degrees, and you’re pulling bricks out of a pile of dirt with wasps. That was not amazing, but it turned into something fun and something memorable.”

Eagle rank achieved

After completing their projects, earning approval from a board of review and fulfilling all other requirements, the triplets achieved the rank of Eagle Scout last August. They formally celebrated the achievement at an Eagle Court of Honor last month.

“It was a long time in the making, and it felt nice to be able to finally say I’ve committed to something, and then have it come to fruition and see the hard work pay off,” Noah said.

He, as well as his brothers, plan to attend different yeshivas in the fall, where they will continue their studies.

Family, friends and community members gathered to celebrate their accomplishment at the ceremony, where the triplets gave speeches looking back on their scouting journey and thanked those who supported them along the way.

“The lesson I will take from my scouting experience is the lesson of grit — not to give up when my plans fall through, not to stop trying when the going gets tough and to never abandon my responsibilities because it is stressful,” Caleb said during the ceremony. “It is these moments that I gained the most from scouting, and it is these moments that make me proud to call myself an Eagle Scout.”