-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari Zac Felch, district executive for Twin Lakes District of the Mid-America Council for Boy Scouts, poses in his Boy Scout uniform. Felch, a lifelong member of Boy Scouts, started in his role as district executive on March 1.

For almost his entire life, Zac Felch has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America.

Joining as a Tiger Cub in the Cub Scouts when he was in first grade, Felch is now the district executive of the Twin Lakes District for the Mid-America Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Felch said this marks his return to the Boy Scouts after several years away due to college.

“I went all the way through Cub Scouts, all the way through Boy Scouts,” he said. “I am an Eagle Scout. I got my Eagle Scout in 2007 when I was 16. I was really involved all the way through my childhood.”

His experience includes volunteering as an assistant scoutmaster in Montgomery, Alabama.

“When I went off to school in Tennessee, I didn’t really have a lot of time for scouting then,” he said. “I just got this job, started March 1, and it’s been kind of going really quick this first week or so.”

“I’m very excited to be back into it,” Felch added.

He did most of his scouting in Maryland, where he spent six years with the National Capital Area Council, located in the Washington, D.C. area.

That’s what inspired him to become involved in Boy Scouts as an adult.

“I was involved with the district up there, so I got to know some of the people who had my position up there, and I kind of looked up to them as a scout,” Felch said. “As I was in college, I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my life and my career. Since scouting has been such a big part of my life growing up, I figured it would be a great opportunity for me to continue that and have that as my full-time job.”

In addition, Felch said he has been involved in scouting in a number of states, due to his father serving in the United States Air Force.

When Felch joined Cub Scouts, he was living in Wisconsin. His family then moved to Tennessee for a year and a half, then moved to Maryland, where his family spent six years.

“Pretty much right after I got Eagle, just a few months after, I moved to Montgomery, Alabama,” he said, where he served as both an assistant scoutmaster, as well as working at a Boy Scout summer camp in Prattville, Alabama, a suburb of Montgomery.

“I had great experiences growing up,” he said. “And then when I moved to college, I wanted to get involved in Tennessee, but I did not have the time with the school.”

While he’s just become the district executive, Felch said he’s lived in Iowa for three years. His job before this was working with Lifetouch Church Directories, where he took family photographs for churches and sold them to families.

He’s looking forward to getting back into scouting and improving upon the program.

“The last district executive, Linda (Ayers), she did a really great job of kind of building this program, and I definitely want to continue that and create a nice program so the boys in this area can experience what I experienced as a boy,” Felch said. “Boy Scouting definitely contributed to making me who I am.”

Specifically, Felch said the Boy Scouts helped him become a better leader.

“Just leadership fundamentals and being able to conduct myself in a good way as a citizen and as an adult in general,” he said.

Felch added he’s excited for the future.

“I’m excited to meet everyone in the community,” he said. “This is definitely a community-type position, being able to provide that scouting experience and give people a good feel of what scouting does for the community.”

He wants to help educate the community about the Boy Scouts and its mission.

“I want to help the community see that it’s definitely alive and thriving in this community,” he said.

The Twin Lakes District includes Webster, Humboldt, Kossuth, Calhoun, Sac and Pocahontas counties.