As Gabriel Villalobos was awarded his Eagle Scout pen, his mother and father, Ana and Daniel, beamed with pride.

In the crowd, his grandfather, Ed, recorded the moment in a video while grinning from ear to ear. He had planted the seeds of scouting excellence for Gabriel when he introduced his son (Daniel) to the organization.

Growing up in California, the Villalobos family lived in a dangerous neighborhood. Daniel’s father, who was also a scout, introduced him to the organization to keep him off the streets.

“We grew up in a very poverty stricken, gang violence area, and this is one of the things he did to get me out of that and show me there’s a better way in life,” Daniel said.

After he earned his Eagle Scout pen in 2001, Daniel got involved in local leadership, including being a den leader and Scout master. It was natural for Gabriel to follow his father into Boy Scouts. But it wasn’t always easy for Gabriel.

A shy kid, Gabriel started his scouting career in California. But then the family moved to Powell, forcing him to make a decision on whether to continue in the organization. He made the right decision, his mother said.

“It’s been a long journey, but I’m glad it’s finally over. I’m glad he finally did it,” Ana said of Gabriel’s decade in scouts.

Daniel, a patrol officer for the Cody Police Department, said he was at a loss for words after Scoutmaster Donnie Peterson and Assistant Scoutmaster Tim Heine replaced Gabriel’s red neckerchief with a blue one representing his scouting achievement.

“I’m kind of overwhelmed with emotion. It’s very good. I love scouting,” he said. “What else could I ask for? Right? He’s doing good, he’s going to college, he is a 4.0 student, has won many letters in high school and he is continuing in scouts as a leader. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Daniel said.

Gabriel’s Eagle project was an American flag disposal container. Basically, it’s a flag retirement box so people who have destroyed American flags can dispose of them in a respectful manner, he said.

During construction Gabriel was supposed to be relatively hands off — his job was to lead about six of his fellow scouts through the roughly 36-hour-long construction process. He had been in leadership positions before but it was hard to be assertive, he said in a previous story with the Tribune, especially when he was encouraged not to be hands-on with his project.

When the box was complete and installed at the law enforcement center it “felt like a long time coming. It felt really good, seeing the hard work me and my scouts and my adult supervisor’s friends helped with,” he said.

Gabriel is enrolled in pre-professional science at Northwest College.

“I’m thinking of going into the medical field,” he said.

He has come a long way from being that introverted cub scout to a junior adult leadership role in the organization. His father has seen his son grow from a boy to a man, in part due to his involvement with scouting.

“Scouts have really helped him. He used to be very introverted prior to this. Now he’s very outgoing, even despite moving,” Daniel said. “We moved a year and a half ago to a brand new troop, and he was able to bring that scouting mentality from that troop to here.”