Kazuo Masuda VFW Post 3670 honored three winners of this year’s Scout of the Year award.
The selection committee found the accomplishments of Eagle Scouts Joshua Nomura, Zachary Mauldin, and Matthew Nakagawa all to be above and beyond the selection criteria.
Attaining the rank of Eagle Scout alone is considered to be an extraordinary accomplishment since only 4% of scouts achieve this rank.
Annually, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. recognizes Eagle Scouts, Girl Scout Gold Award recipients, Venture Summit Award recipients and Sea Scout Quarter-masters who have risen above their peers in exemplifying the qualities of that rank.
Troop 242’s Eagle Scout Joshua Nomura from Torrance stood out as a prime performer for his efforts to further improve the quality of education for youth. He took the lead in establishing a grassroots effort to organize a local community book drive that resulted in a collection of over 6,000 books to augment the Compton Elementary School library.
Additionally, Nomura’s drive to foster the education of youth was recognized for his active volunteering at Children’s Ministry, where he mentors and assists younger members.
His caring for the less fortunate was also commended by the selection committee for his positive contributions to the Feed My Starving Children and the Journey of South Bay organizations focused on eliminating hunger throughout the world and local communities.
He is attending Pepperdine University.
OCBC Troop 578’s Eagle Scout Zachary Mauldin from Anaheim, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, persevered throughout his battle with the disease and continued to advance in the scouting ranks despite his condition.
During his treatment, Mauldin was granted a Make-a-Wish and met his longtime hero Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. The great joy of meeting Trout inspired Mauldin to help others experiencing similar challenges. And just as Mauldin persevered to become an Eagle Scout, he once again demonstrated selfless perseverance by becoming an ambassador in the local Make-A-Wish chapter, offering inspiration and support for those in need.
He is attending University of Colorado.
OCBC Troop 578’s Eagle Scout Matthew Nakagawa from Rossmoor long recognized the importance of establishing a sports and fitness mindset early in our lives for life-long health and well-being. His keen insight also understood that fitness must be enjoyable with achievable goals.
After thinking about how to make this happen, Nakagawa created a unique NBA Skills Challenge Course that taught the fundamentals of basketball in a fun and challenging way by having players navigate through a series of stations along the course. After many long hours of developing and fine-tuning his program, he found success as many of his fellow students adopted his course into their fitness routine.
Additionally, Nakagawa continued to refine his program by examining the impacts of sports injuries from over-exertion, which led to the creation of guidelines on proper equipment and taping methods to maximize performance while preventing injuries.
In the fall he will be attending UC Santa Barbara.