During the recent convention of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Indiana Aerie, the Crawfordsville Aerie 1005 Ritual Team was inducted into the Indiana State Aerie Hall of Fame.
The team is comprised of members with a combined 145 years of ritual experience, with the newest member of the team having 11 years. Team members are the late Greg Dargie, Terry Smith, Charles “Chuck” Cloncs, Ralph “Bubba” Edwards, Gary Harrison, Jim Shahan and Alan Homsher.
Dargie was an instrumental member of the team, encouraging participation of members to properly perform the ritual and worked with the Grand Aerie as chairman of the international ritual committee.
The team has participated in numerous competitions over the years, earning six international championships, three of those with perfect scores, and two of those were back-to-back. Teams from across the country compete annually at the international convention and are judged on appearance, presentation, words and punctuation, with presentation being from memory. Judging is done to .001 of a point. A perfect score is attained by all members of a team earning 100 points.
The Crawfordsville Aerie 1005 team is known across the country and has made a training video, available to all Aeries, to demonstrate and teach the proper ritual.
