Gil Kauffmann of House Springs and Keith Mueller of High Ridge received Silver Beaver Awards at the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America’s annual dinner, held June 7 in Collinsville, Ill.
The Silver Beaver is the highest recognition the Boy Scouts award to volunteers.
Kauffmann has been a leader at all levels of Scouting and continues to serve as an assistant Scoutmaster and assistant crew adviser. He is a district chair, district committee member, Memorial Day Good Turn staff, unit commissioner and merit badge counselor. Kauffmann has staffed numerous Cub Scout and Boy Scout workshops and Universities of Scouting. This summer he will serve on his second National Youth Leadership training staff. An Eagle Scout, Kauffmann has received 17 Eagle Scout mentor pins.
An avid fisherman, Kauffmann has helped secure the donation of more than 14,000 fishing reels for local youth. He volunteered for many years for the BASS Missouri Federation and St. Louis Area Bassmasters as youth director, junior director and Casting Kids director. He has been active in his sons’ school and in the High Ridge Church of Christ. He is on the board of directors of the Missouri Waste Control Coalition.
Mueller has served as Scoutmaster for Troop 450 since 2011. He has also been an Eagle board of review member since 2012, district camping chair and Order of the Arrow ceremonial adviser since 2013, as well as a Webelos-Ree staff and Friends of Scouting trailblazer since 2014. Mueller has led groups to the Philmont and Florida Sea Base high adventure bases. He is an NRA-certified shooting sports instructor.
He also is active in his church, is head of security for his subdivision and serves on the neighborhood’s steering committee.
The Greater St. Louis Area Council is one of the largest in the Boy Scouts of America and has more than 66,000 members and nearly 15,000 adult volunteers, who come from 51 counties in the St. Louis metropolitan area, southeast Missouri and southern Illinois.
