Fred Keller received the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) - Whitney M. Young Service Award on October 12, 2017 at the Amway Grand Plaza. In announcing the award, Kevin Nichols - CEO of the President Ford Council, BSA stated, “The Whitney M. Young Award is the highest honor the BSA can award a community member.  We are proud to announce that the 2017 recipient is Fred Keller, who has demonstrated the highest level of dedication to youth in the greater Grand Rapids area.

In accepting the award Fred had this to say, “On behalf of Cascade Engineering I am honored and humbled to accept the Whitney M. Young Service Award. A positive future for our community is based on equipping and training our youth as the next generation of leaders in West Michigan.  Scouting provides them with life skills and experiences that enable their potential.

We have been particularly involved at the District and Troop level to provide financial support for youth from low-income urban backgrounds. I want to acknowledge Kenyatta Brame, our Executive Vice-President at Cascade Engineering, for starting Boy Scout Troop 258 and his wife Tracey Brame for starting Cub Scout Troop 3206 in 2012. These troops comprised of 35 young people from the city of Grand Rapids are learning life skills that will help them be successful adults and contributing members of society.  They are learning the importance of character building and development centered on good morals and values. They are engaging in outdoor experiences like hiking, camping and mountain biking, many of them for the first time.

These experiences form the foundation for them to embrace opportunity and overcome obstacles in life. They are all learning valuable skills that employers like Cascade Engineering will be looking for when hiring the next generation of leaders. “