Horizon High student seeks Summit Rank

Winter Garden resident and Venture Crew 6 member Charlie Torbert is working to raise $3,000 to update the Horizon High School boys and girls wrestling teams training room. 

This project will catapult him into Venture Crew 6’s highest rank: Summit, which compares to the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts.

Venturing is a core program of the Boy Scouts of America for scouts ages 14 to 20. 

Torbert, 16, is a rising junior at Horizon High and a member of the boys wrestling team. 

“The project I’m doing is the requirement for the last rank,” he said. “You have to do some kind of community project that helps out the community.” 

The idea is to install three peg boards and two pull-up bars and mount a new TV. Also, Torbert wants to purchase a tablet or video camera so coaches can record the matches to later display them on the training room TV. Team members would be able to analyze themselves and improve their techniques for future matches. 

“I wanted to help my wrestling team,” Torbert said. “All of our sports teams (at Horizon High) have a lot of funds, and they cut off the funds for the wrestling team, so next year we have to pay for all of our tournaments, and any new equipment or anything we want we have to get ourselves.” 

So far, the project has raised $500, so the pull-up bars already have been purchased. Ron Torbert, Charlie’s dad, is a Venturing Crew 6 counselor and has been helping him with his GoFundMe page. 

Even though there is no deadline to finish the project, “the main goal is to finish it before wrestling season starts,” Rob Torbert said. 

A HISTORY OF HELP

This is not the first time Charlie Torbert has done a project to help the community. When he was working toward his Eagle Scout rank at 13, Charlie Torbert remodeled a basketball court at a church. The project consisted of repaving and repainting the courts, taking out the two old hoops and installing a new one. The project also included clearing the area of brush and building a fence and side bench.

The Summit Rank is the peak of Charlie Torbert’s scouting career. After he achieves it, he then will be able to serve others by becoming a counselor or adviser for younger Venturing Crew members. 

Overall, Charlie Torbert’s Venturing Crew has accumulated 400 hours of community service this year. Charlie Torbert himself has 285 service hours. 

“We have to bring people in and do it ourselves,” he said.

Any funds beyond the $3,000 goal will go toward Horizon High’s wrestling team, so team members won’t need to pay as much when it comes to tournaments and equipment needed for the upcoming season. 

FAMILY AFFAIR

Charlie Torbert joined the Cub Scouts when he was 10 years old. About a year later, he became a Boy Scout. 

“It gives you something to do that you don’t normally get to do,” he said of scouting. “You go camping, you get to shoot stuff, you learn a lot of things — about everything, especially on picking out a career. You get to learn what you like, and if you want to continue that, you can.” 

Charlie Torbert’s father and grandfather — Ron Torbert and Ron Torbert Sr., respectively, also were Boy Scouts, and both serve their country as part of the military. 

Ron Torbert Sr. was a Boy Scout back in the 1950s, while Ron Torbert joined the Boy Scouts during the late 1970s. To earn the Eagle Scout rank, Boy Scouts need to earn a total of 21 merit badges. Charlie Torbert not only got the 21 required but also the remaining 118. 

“It’s a competitive thing with him,” Ron Torbert said. “I’ve got 33 merit badges, so when he passed me he was like, ‘I’ve got double. and now I’ve got triple (than you).’ … Before scouts, we always did things together, then with scouts, we did them earning a badge. … At the end it got expensive but it was only the last few. ” 

Charlie Torbert became one of the 450 Boy Scouts who have earned all 139 merit badges in 110 years.

One merit badge the three generations of Torberts have in common is the fingerprinting merit badge. Ron Torbert Sr. got it in 1956, Ron Torbert in 1981, and Charlie Torbert in 2017.