The Boy Scout from Eagle Grove who was killed in Wednesday’s scout camp tornado is being described as a "giver" by one of his former teachers. Fourteen-year-old Aaron Eilerts had just finished eighth grade and would have been in high school this fall.
Scott Jeske of Eagle Grove was a middle school teacher who had the scout in class. "Aaron was one of the most amazing young men I’ve ever been around," Jeske says. "…Just for no reason…I’d come into my office in the mornign and there’d be a present on my desk and it would be from Aaron, just telling me to have a nice day. Everybody that you talk to says the same thing. He just did things out of the goodness of his heart because he was that kind of kid."
Jeske is now a principal at the high school where the scout would have been a freshman. A team of crisis counselors met this morning at the school and will be there for students who want to talk. The principal says Eilerts was well-known around Eagle Grove. "He was always doing projects to help others, really for no reason," Jeske says. "I think it was part of his scouting and I think it was just part of who he was."
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
(Pat Powers of KQWC in Webster City contributed to this report.)