Zachary Van Ryswick, Joseph Cress, and Noah Foster, members of Trail Life USA Troop MD-0513, will be awarded the Freedom Award. The Freedom Award is the highest award in the Trail Life program, which recognizes the many traits a young man must gain to excel in life as a man of integrity and courage.
The three Rangemen will receive their award during the Court of Honor Freedom Ceremony on 22 June 2024 at St. John’s Francis Regis Church Hollywood, MD
Trail Life USA is a church-based, Christ-centered and boy-focused organization. The mission of Trail Life is to guide generations of courageous, young men to honor God, lead with integrity, serve others, and experience outdoor adventure. Trail Life’s vision aims to mentor the youth and become the premier national character development organization for young men and produce godly and responsible husbands, fathers, and citizens.
The Trail Life Oath (On my honor, I will do my best to serve God and my country, to respect authority, to be a good steward of creation, and to treat others as I want to be treated), Motto (Walk Worthy), Mission, and Vision set Trail Life apart from other organizations. The troop has truly exemplified Proverbs 27:17 that proclaims: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”.
We ask for God’s blessing over these three young men as they go out and lead others. May they always Walk Worthy!
Noah Foster
Walk worthy. This is not just a phrase to be learned, but one to be lived out in life. Through the careful, loving guidance of Godly men and a caring, Christ-like community of his Trail Life friends since 2019, Noah has achieved rank of Rangeman. Serving as First Officer in Trail Life, he has led the younger Trailmen in various troop events and mentored them through a variety of badge work.
In the community, Noah has followed Christ’s lead in serving others through organizing and implementing a successful food drive campaign, participating in a mission trip to Honduras, serving at a local food pantry and farm for the past 5 years, and being part of the media team at First Baptist Church of Upper Marlboro. Using his God-given talents, Noah has employed his communication and leadership skills at his place of employment, Mathnasium & Phelps concessions, and worked on a Global Student Leader team to create the media for a global conference.
For his Trail Life Freedom Award project, Noah collaborated with the North Beach Nature Center to successfully lead a multifaceted project endeavor. This project involved blazing and developing a picturesque nature trail, named the Green Trail, with a seating area, various birdhouses, and tree stump listening spot. As a current Rangeman, Noah plans to continue applying his Trail Life training of walking worthy as he attends Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky, this fall, majoring in business finance.
Joseph Cress
Joseph joined Trail Life in 2016 at his troop’s inception. He is a positive, encouraging leader, loyal friend, and ambitious challenge seeker. He is an avid learner and loves all types of outdoor activities. He specifically enjoys ultralight backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, overnight survival challenges, and honing his marksmanship with shooting sports. He also relishes troop paintball matches, and fearlessly goes on the offensive to lead his team to victory. He is eager for the situation to become unexpectedly more difficult and thrives when things get rough. He is quick to assist a fellow Trailman and leads with integrity and sincerity.
Joseph is a rising high school junior and a straight A student who particularly loves history, science, and math. He is actively involved in mixed martial arts, beekeeping, blacksmithing, and competes on a successful robotics team. He has been an altar server at church since he was seven years old, and his faith is central and primary in his life. His over 1100 hours of service, including working at a summer youth camp, have earned him seven Gold Presidential Service Awards.
His Freedom Project was designing, planning, and leading the building of a permanent, maintenance-free fire pit along with five custom cedar benches for his troop’s charter organization. He is a trustworthy and honorable leader and will serve as the troop First Officer this coming year. He appreciates the opportunity to teach and mentor the younger Trailmen.
Zachary Van Ryswick
Zachary has been with Trail Life Troop MD-0513 for the past 6 years. Throughout his time there, he has made great friends and learned many valuable skills such as outdoor cooking, first aid, emergency preparedness, and camping.
Some of his best memories with the troop were of survival campouts where the troop had to work together to catch and cook their own food and build their own shelter. The lessons the young men learned were invaluable and the memories are irreplaceable. Zachary’s favorite role in the troop has been leading the younger boys and teaching them survival skills.
Through Trail Life, Zachary has become an effective leader and communicator, and he works great with a team. He uses these talents in other aspects of his life as well. He enjoys being part of his wrestling team at Leonardtown High School, Altar Serving at his church, and he trains others to serve at his church and community all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
For his Freedom Service Project, he led a group of Trail Life members in assembling benches for a local church. Earning the rank of Rangeman is an honor for Zachary and one achieved with the help of many leaders and members in the troop and especially with the help of his fellow Rangemen Joseph and Noah. He is grateful for everyone that has helped him achieve this rank.
