CORNING, N.Y. (WENY) -- On Thursday, January 4th, The Boy Scouts of America Five Rivers Council honored the 2023 class of Eagle Scouts at SUNY Corning Community College. Completing the 21 merit badges associated with being an Eagle Scout takes several years.

"On behalf of all of last year's calendar year Eagle Scouts so you know it's just it's kind of the final congratulations event for us," says Brett Powell, Chair of Eagle Scouts Annual Banquet. 

Guest of Honor Tony Barbieri is an Eagle Scout Alumni. To this day, Barbieri uses his Scouting skills at his virtual reality software development job at Meta (Facebook.) 

"It probably did at the stage of my life and I played sports and I had friends and did things for fun but I think that those are great I think the things that I learn from scouting is what's set me up as a person and things that probably shaped too I am Throughout my whole life," shared Tony Barbieri, former Eagle Scout, Guest Speaker, and Honored Guest.

"I think {the} stuff that is really worth having is worth putting in a lot of effort into, and it is a really nice feeling when you finish," says Eagle Scout Grace. 

Before reaching Eagle Scouts several other scouting levels need to be accomplished like Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life.