Local Boy Scout awarded Distinguished Scout Award

Mark Riddle received the The Distinguished Scout Award during the 25th annual Distinguished Citizens Dinner held by The Boy Scouts of America, Longs Peak Council on May 13.

Courtesy of The Boy Scouts of America, Longs Peak Council

The Boy Scouts of America, Longs Peak Council held their 25th annual Distinguished Citizens Dinner on May 13 at the Plaza Hotel in Longmont. The night included dinner, a program and a live performance by pianist Dale Sherrod.

During the dinner, The Distinguished Scout Award was given to Mark Riddle. Riddle has been a scout since 2010 and has acquired 57 merit badges to date. He has received numerous scouting awards including World Conservation, Historical Trails, On My Honor, Thomas S. Monson, and the Fifty-Miler awards. Riddle is currently a sophomore at Silver Creek High School in Longmont.

Dr. Jack Cletcher was also recognized and received the Col. Dan Straight Distinguished Citizen Award. Cletcher was born in Decatur, Illinois in 1928. He was encouraged by his mother, who he lost to cancer in his junior year of high school, to become active in many areas outside of school, one of which was Boy Scouts. He became the first Eagle Scout his town had seen in many years just before his 18th birthday in 1945. Cletcher went on to earn his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and then returned to Illinois to get his medical degree at the University of Illinois, Medical School. He served in the U.S. Navy as an on-board doctor for seven round trips from Seattle, Wash., to Japan before moving his family to Denver to become an orthopedic surgeon. The family settle in Longmont is 1971 and Cletcher retired in 2002. Since then, he as served as a board member and as president of the Boulder County Medical Society, been recognized with an award from a non-profit health care clinic association and founded the Colorado Orthopedic Society which then designated him as the inaugural member of its "Hall of Fame."

For more information on the The Boy Scouts of America, Longs Peak Council, go to www.longspeakBSA.org.