BY DAVE BINDER

Special to The Press

For Lehigh Valley Press readers who also watch 69 News WFMZ-TV, the face and voice of former South Whitehall Township resident Matthew Binder may be familiar.

In fact, the weather forecaster provided the report for the June 24 broadcast at 6 p.m.

Now living in Lancaster, Binder, a Parkland High School graduate, recently received the National Eagle Scout Association’s Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Pennsylvania Dutch Council and the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award was implemented in 1969.

Since that time, fewer than 2,000 of the awards have been approved out of 2.7 million Eagle Scout ranks.

Established to recognize Eagle Scouts who, after 25 years or longer of having received the Eagle Scout Award, the award honors those who have reached the highest national level of success in their field.

In addition, recipients have demonstrated a strong record of volunteer leadership service to their communities.

This prestigious national level recognition was only the fifth award presented by the Pennsylvania Dutch Council in the past 54 years.

Binder earned the Eagle Scout Award in Minsi Trails Council during 1987, and earned six Eagle Palms for his Eagle Scout medal by earning an additional 30 merit badges (a total of 51) while he was still a youth.

He is a Vigil Honor member of the Order of the Arrow and served on camp staff for four summers.

He served as an Assistant Scoutmaster in Troop 6, Minsi Trails Council from 1991-2000. Assistant Scoutmaster in Troop 9 from 2000-2005, and went on to serve on Troop 9’s committee for another 12 years.

Binder was a youth participant at the 1987 World Jamboree in Australia, staff and band member for the 1989 and 1993 National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill.

Binder has been a professional educator in the Hempfield School District for more than 25 years.

He was an eighth grade earth-science teacher at Centerville Middle School from August 1996 to August 2010.

Since then, he has been the Hempfield Senior High School communications technology teacher

He has used his 23 years of experience in television to create and manage hands-on, student centered, and student directed high school media program.

He is a professional educator who teaches broadcasting, journalism, film and media communications to high school students.

Binder is coordinator of a daily school news program, weekly web program, and monthly cable news magazine program on behalf of the Hempfield School District.

He is also the liaison to the Student Television Network and organizes yearly journalism teams and travels to national competitions.

Binder also coaches the Centerville Middle School Chess team and is a member of the Hempfield School District Commencement Speaker Committee.

In addition to his high school involvement, Binder is an adjunct meteorology instructor at Harrisburg Area Community College and has taught 22 cumulative semesters of in-person synchronous and blended learning model labs.

He has prepared 75 videos for the creation of an online asynchronous meteorology course. He was presented the Faculty Scholars Award for Technology Education in 2017 and 2018.

Binder was an adjunct weather and climate instructor at West Chester University during 2020.

His civic commitments include serving as a liaison for the North Museum Science and Engineering Fair in Lancaster.

He organized and supervised all the Hempfield School District contingent of students who were selected for the regional science and engineering fair, and has served as the assistant Centerville Middle School Science Fair director.

Binder was a Pennsylvania Science Assessment Creation and Review Committee member and a member of NASA’s Science Visualization Review committee.

His responsibilities included reviewing, correcting and critiquing NASA animations for educational content before public release.

He was also an educator assistant at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

As an Eagle Scout, Binder continued to demonstrate his outstanding character and excellent achievement by being selected as a finalist as an educator astronaut candidate in NASA’s Astronaut Class of 2004.

He was one of 35 educator astronaut candidates selected from a field of more than 3,500 highly qualified applicants nationwide for the position.

Unfortunately, a medical issue found at the very end of the selection process blocked his ability to go into space, but he has remained as a member of NASA’s Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers since 2004.

While a member of NEAT, Binder has given more than 32 presentations on behalf of NASA-Network of Education Astronaut Teachers.

His presentation, “My Experience as an Education Astronaut Candidate,” was given to school, community, and teacher groups in the region, as well as national and regional conferences.

A bit of a celebrity in the Susquehanna Valley, he can be seen as a forecaster and broadcaster of weather on WGAL-TV-8, in addition to WFMZ TV-69, Allentown.

His time on television has spanned more than 25 years.

Although volunteer service to the community through Scouting is not required for the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, he has never ventured far from a program that provided so much to him.

After his son, Adam, was born and old enough to join Cub Scouts, Binder volunteered to be a leader in his son’s Cub Scout Pack.

He served Cub Scout Pack 181 as a Tiger Leader and an Assistant Cubmaster of 142 when they joined the Pack in Lititz.

When his daughter, Sarah, joined Cub Scouts with Pack 142, Binder served as Cubmaster.

Currently, he is an Assistant Scoutmaster for Adam with Troop 349, and an Assistant Scoutmaster for Sarah with Troop 142G.

He also helps other Scouts as a Merit Badge Counselor for 12 different merit badges.

Binder was a finalist for Teacher of the Year in Pennsylvania and was recognized as a National Outstanding Eagle Scout by the Minsi Trails Council in 2014.

Binder is the son of Dave and Lois Binder of South Whitehall Township.

He and his wife, Susan, live in Lancaster with their son, Adam, and daughter, Sarah.