The
18-year-old Atlee High School student loves camping, hiking and
sports of all kinds. He has been tapped for the Order of the Arrow,
a select group within the Boy Scouts, and he has earned the rank
of Eagle Scout - the Boy Scouts' highest honor.
The fact that Hammar has Down
syndrome makes his successes sweeter, but it has never been an
obstacle during his five years with Troop 521.
"He needs help, yeah, but
he's just another Scout," said Josh McIntyre, 16, a troop
member and one of Hammar's close friends. "He helps us, we
help him. He's normal to us."
Yesterday, more than 75 of Hammar's
family, friends and fellow troop members attended his Eagle Scout
Court of Honor ceremony, where he was presented with the symbols
of his rank. Hammar had been working toward that day since joining
the troop a few months after his father died.
"He told me when he got into
the troop that he was going to be an Eagle Scout," Scoutmaster
Tim Swingle said. "And here he is."
The hourlong ceremony included
handshakes and hugs for Hammar and red roses for his mother, Eileen.
And tears were shed by many audience members during Eileen Hammar's
emotional speech thanking Troop 521 for supporting her son.
But it was Kit Hammar's speech,
delivered with style and humor, that prompted a standing ovation.
He told the story of an eagle raised with chickens that, with
help, learned what it meant to behave as an eagle.
"Thanks for seeing the eagle
in me," Hammar told the group. "I'm flying high today."
Becoming an Eagle Scout is a process
that takes between four and eight years to finish, Swingle said.
Nationally, about 4 percent of the boys who join troops achieve
the rank.
To reach Eagle Scout, Hammar completed
the requirements for more than two dozen merit badges and organized
a landscaping project at New Hanover Presbyterian Church, where
he is a voting member.
Swingle, who was an assistant
scoutmaster when Hammar joined Troop 521, said he was initially
concerned that Hammar would be in for a difficult time. But the
troop immediately accepted Hammar, and the accommodations that
Hammar needed to participate were minimal, he said.
"He's just like everyone
else," Swingle said. "He may have a little difficulty
with communication sometimes. Other than that, he's focused and
he's got determination."
Boy Scouts is hardly the only
place where Hammar has made significant achievements. Hammar is
the proud owner of 20 trophies and 20 medals - five of them in
gold - that he won in the Special Olympics. He plays basketball,
golf and softball in the Special Olympics, and he has just started
bowling as well.
At his Hanover County school,
Hammar is a member of the Junior ROTC and speaks to school psychology
classes about disabilities. He has performed in several school
plays, and he is a member of the International Thespian Society.
He spent two years as the manager for the junior varsity football
team, and this school year he will manage the track team.
A fan of rap music and video games,
Hammar doesn't toot his own horn without prompting from his mother.
To a degree, he doesn't see the reason for the fuss. He's just
living his life.
But Eileen Hammar wants to make
society aware that children such as her son can and do have normal
lives.
She especially credits Troop 521
with helping Kit do so by giving him a hand whenever he needed
it.
"The more natural support
[Kit] can get, the closer [he is] to living an ordinary life,"
Eileen Hammar said.
Troop 521 members "didn't
make a big deal out of it. They just did it, lovingly."
Now that Kit Hammar has turned
18, he is too old to be a Boy Scout. But he's not going to leave
scouting.
"I want to be a leader,"
he said.
If Hammar has his way, any troop
he leads will include many boys with disabilities - and he'll
help them achieve as much as he has.
Contact Lea Setegn at (804) 649-6058 or lsetegn@timesdispatch.com
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