Five years ago, Sam Hagan met Anthony Thomas, the two-millionth Eagle Scout and 100th Anniversary Youth Ambassador for Boy Scouts. Sam has worked to become an Eagle Scout himself ever since. After meeting that goal by becoming an Eagle Scout last year, Sam met Thomas once again Saturday.

“I didn’t know that he was coming over and I met him five years ago, and it was pretty cool just to meet him again,” Sam said.

Sam’s father, Dennis Hagan, arranged the meeting as a surprise since Sam will have his formal Eagle Scout ceremony this coming Saturday. Although Thomas can’t make it to that ceremony, he still wanted meet Sam after these five years and see the memorial project.

“It’s always really amazing to come back and see … scouts that maybe you’ve met only briefly that remember you and you remember them, and it’s really kind of cool to see the influence that scouting can have, that has had on myself, obviously Sam as well,” Thomas, now 22, said. “And it’s really fun to come back and see the scouts, see what memories they’ve made and how this affected them.”

Five years ago, Sam met Thomas at a Boy Scout conference at the Mall of America, which inspired Sam to work toward becoming an Eagle Scout.

“[Thomas] was an Eagle Scout when I met him and it kind of drove me to become an Eagle Scout — and all the values that you got, all the opportunities that you got also,” Sam said.

Sam’s hard work paid off. On Dec. 21, 2014, Sam moved from Life Scout to Eagle Scout in Boy Scout Troop 113. Sam’s formal ceremony will take place this Saturday.

“It feels a long time coming,” Sam said. “So it’s going to be very nice. It’s pretty cool.”

Sam, now 14, worked for about six months to place a fallen soldier memorial at the corner of the Veterans of Foreign Wars club’s parking lot and unveiled it last Veterans Day. This leadership project was one of the things he needed to accomplish to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

A Boy Scout for eight years, Sam raised about $6,000 and landscaped to put the memorial on the VFW grounds as part of his project to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. He wanted to do something that would last many years, and he hopes the monument will help people remember loved ones. He got the idea for the Fallen Soldier Warrior monument after looking at different statues online.

The fallen soldier memorial stands about 3 1/2 feet tall, weighs 150 pounds and is made of solid bronze. The statue features a pair of boots with an army gun propped up between them and a helmet at the top. The memorial came from Brodin Studios in Minnesota.

Thomas was impressed by the project.

“I think it’s really great,” Thomas said. “I actually didn’t realize the nature of this project until we got down here, and that was something I was very curious about. And it’s always really cool to see projects like these … it’s really cool to see a scout take up a project — especially for such a great cause — something that everyone can really rally behind.”

Sam and Thomas took Saturday to get to know each other and talk about their experiences in Boy Scouts.

“We’ve just been kind of catching up after five years — a little bit to catch up on — going through what I’ve experienced, what Sam’s experienced through scouting, just kind of going through memory lane,” Thomas said.

“It’s great. He was very excited to see this memorial today,” Sam added. “He just wanted to see what it was and how I was doing.”

Thomas was glad scouting and his own experiences have had a big impact for others.

“Scouting had obviously had an impact on myself, and it’s great to see that it’s doing the same for others,” Thomas said.