[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
Wellesley Boy Scout Troop 185 held their summer Court of Honor on Monday, June 12, at the Italo-American Club. It was an exceptionally hot day, so after the annual BBQ, the Court of Honor took place outside. The scouts spent the spring earning merit badges; 52 Scouts qualified for a total of 124 awards, including 82 merit badges. The swimming and personal fitness merit badges were the most popular; Teddy dePeyster gained the most badges overall with 14. Many of the scouts will be attending the Jamboree this summer and the annual scout camp at Camp Resolute, so the community can expect a bumper crop of awards collected over the summer vacation.
Parents presented the new rank badge to their sons who advanced in rank, including:
Scout: Theodore Bida, Teddy dePeyster, Will Edmonds, Leo Morelli, Robert Perron and Hayden Summer.
Tenderfoot: Teddy dePeyster, Christian Grosso and Dylan McKeever.
Second Class: Jay Butler, Jason Cannistraro, Ty Cronin, Quinn Healy, Grayson Houghton, Patrick Lin, Gary Martin and James McCurley
First Class: Quinn Healy, Grayson Houghton, Henry MacKinnon, Gary Martin and James Pearson
Star: Michael Grosso, Reece Hoskyns, Noah Janchar, Sam Manglapus, Thomas Neilson and Eddie Ryan
Life: Henry Boyd and Frank Gittleman
Brendan Sullivan, Nick Pyzowski, Zane Salameh, John Fortini, Glen Manglapus, Jacob Einbinder.
Over the past few years the troop has been to several of the Boy Scout national “high adventure” bases; these camps have an element of extreme conditions and require the scouts to have a higher level of fitness. Their most recent expedition was a camping trip in February to the Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Northern Minnesota. However, it was unseasonably warm with temperatures above freezing during the day; in fact, one of the scouts' activities was to build a shelter from snow and this was all but impossible.
Two of the scouts had also been to two other high adventure bases: a 12-day backpacking trek at the Philmont Scout camp in New Mexico and the Coral Reef Sailing Adventure at the Boy Scout Sea Base in Florida in April 2016. This meant that they were now entitled to the “Triple Crown” award. Jarrett Huddleston and Alexander Prideaux earned this award and the surprise of the evening was that Scoutmaster Fortini earned the award as well. If these scouts complete the high adventure program at the Summit High Adventure Base in West Virginia, they will qualify to receive the “Grand Slam” award, which means that they have completed an adventure program at all four of these high adventure bases. Although scoutmaster Fortini and Scouts Huddleston and Prideaux have already attended Summit as participants at the National Jamboree, only the adventure program held there qualifies for the “Grand Slam”.
Continuing in the spirit of adventure, Scoutmaster Fortini announced that the Scouts would be going to Alaska during the summer of 2019; all Scouts aged 14 and older would be eligible to attend.
Scoutmaster Fortini thanked the Assistant Scoutmasters and all the adults serving on the Troop Committee and those who volunteer as merit badge counselors, on boards of review, at courts of honor, at fundraising events or at summer camp.
The Troop meets on Monday evenings from 7:30-9:00 p.m. at St. John’s school in Wellesley. Boys currently in fifth grade to age 18 are welcome to join. Boys and girls age 14 or in 8th grade through age 21 are welcome to join the Troop’s associated co-ed Venture Crew 42, which meets monthly on Saturday evenings. To join, contact Scoutmaster Fortini at jofortin@bsamail.org.
