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Wellesley Boy Scout Troop 185 held their Summer Court of Honor on Monday, June 13, 2016 at the Italo-American Club. Since the last Court of Honor in February, 56 of the Scouts have earned a total of 112 merit badges. 39 boys advanced a total of 46 ranks. Steven Ditelberg earned the most merit badges with eight (Citizenship in the Community, Communications, Emergency Preparedness, Entrepreneurship, Family Life, Lifesaving, Nuclear Science, Personal Management).
The Troop also welcomed its newest Eagle Scout, Seth Harrison-Gomez. Seth’s immediate family and grandmother were present to see him receive Scouting’s highest rank. Seth was presented with his Eagle neckerchief and slide, as well as some of the certificates acknowledging his achievement. He also gave a short talk on his Eagle project, where he led a group of Scouts in the cleanup of Carson’s Beach in South Boston.
The Scouts and their parents enjoyed a barbecue outside the venue prior to the start of the proceedings.
In February, 26 boys joined the Troop; the boys have now earned the most important badge, the Scout badge – without Scout, there is no fun of Scouting or earning Eagle Scout: Connor Bruce, Jay Butler, Jason Cannistraro, Gaurav Capila, Jonathan Chiu, Ty Cronin, Giorgio Giglio, Noah Goldman, Benjamin Gordon, Zachary Dupont, Christian Grosso, Quinn Healey, Grayson Houghton, Ethan Kinney, Justin Klessel, Patrick Lin, Henry MacKinnon, David Maggiacomo, Marc Maggiacomo, Gary Martin, James McCurley, Dylan McKeever, Frank Mendes, Mac Munro, Evan Tellalian and Aidan Ulian. There were so many Scouts that they could not fit on the stage and had to receive their badges in front of it.
Parents joined their sons on stage while they received recognition for their rank advancement. Tenderfoot was awarded to Connor Bruce, David Maggiacomo, Marc Maggiacomo, James Pearson & Aidan Ulian. Second Class was awarded to Connor Bruce, Samuel Manglapus, Thomas Nielsen & Edward Ryan. New Star Scouts are William Hulme & Sage Lapides. Life candidates were Steven Ditelberg, Jacob Einbinder, Baird Feeney, Daniel Scherrer, Carter Smith, Aidan Sullivan & Eric Thompson. All continuing Scouts received Service Stars for their number of years in the Troop, ranging from one to seven years.
Jarrett Huddleston earned his 4th Gold Palm, representing the fact that he has earned 76 Merit Badges. His brother Matthew has earned his second Bronze Eagle Palm, having earned 20 merit badges beyond his Eagle badges and served at least three months since his last board of review. This represents 41 merit badges!
The National Outdoor Award is earned for adventure, hiking, riding, aquatics and camping; the Hiking Award went to Eric Carlson, Glen Manglapus and Baird Feeney, the Adventure Award to Jarrett Huddleston and Max Morelli, and the Camping Award to Brady Howell, Alexander Luzaitis, Daniel Scherrer, Aidan Sullivan, Tony Czubarow, Jacob Einbinder and Nathaniel Gordon.
The relatively new STEM awards went to Tony Czubarow (STEM5) and Tyler Piazza (STEM10); while Steven Ditelberg won the BSA NOVA Award “Designed to Crunch” (apparently something to do with Math problems!) A few athletic Scouts completed the mile swim; Tony Czubarow, Steven Ditelberg, Russell Hornung, Will Hulme, Thomas Nielsen, Aidan Sullivan, Nick Pyzowski and Daniel Scherrer; while some went a little “deeper” and earned their BSA Snorkeling Award while at the Florida Seabase trip in the Keys over April vacation; Artem Andrews, John Ashbrook, Tony Czubarow, Rowan DePeyster, Frank Gittleman, Russell Hornung, Brady Howell, Ben Lussier, Owen O’Connor, Nick Pyzowski, Zane Salameh, Andrew Scherrer, Daniel Scherrer, Eoin Shea, Fletcher Smyth, Collin Sullivan and Eric Thompson. Stephen Ditelberg, Sage Lapides, Russell Hornung and Aidan Sullivan joined the Order of the Arrow by completing their “ordeal” at Camp Resolute to join the Chippanyonk Lodge.
Brendan Sullivan earned his the Pope Pius XII Award, the Catholic Religious Award available to Scouts.
Not only the boys received awards. There were a number of adult rewards in recognition to services to Scouting. Tom Huddleston was awarded the “Silver Beaver award” by the Knox Trail Council, the highest award presented by a local Boy Scout Council. Tom also received the Arrowhead Award, as did Jeremy Ditelberg. Jeremy also received an award in recognition for training he has completed.
Scoutmaster Fortini then announced some of the upcoming Troop events. The troop is planning to attend the “Northern Tier-Okpik” trip in Minnesota over the February vacation in 2017. This winter adventure is open to Scouts over the age of 14 and includes Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, dog-sledding and trekking. The next outing planned is at Camp Resolute in Bolton, MA in July, followed by the Saco River canoe trip September 16 -18. He also thanked the retiring senior patrol leaders Jarrett Huddleston & Tyler Piazza for their hard work and welcomed Max Morelli and Brendan Sullivan into the position. They will be assisted by Jacob Einbinder, Ben Lussier, Glen Manglapus and Zane Salameh.
Yvette Lavin, an Assistant Scoutmaster with the Troop, regularly visits Mexico and has helped to start Boy Scout Troops in Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) Mexico, including a Troop in an orphanage. The Mexican boys have been very excited to be Scouts and the project has grown far beyond what was anticipated, over 350 boys would like to become Scouts and 10 to 15 Troops have already started in schools, community centers, and local sports clubs. However, as these children have no access to uniforms, Yvette has asked that any families that have Scout clothing that their sons have outgrown to donate them to this cause. Financial help would also be welcomed; charitable donations should be made by check to Troop 185 with “Mexico” in the memo line. The troop sponsored by the orphanage will be given priority for donations. Yvette and Scoutmaster Fortini are planning to take a group our Scouts from Troop 185 to Mexico in August to train the adult and youth leaders in the new Troops.
The final part of the evening was the Eagle Court of Honor for Seth Harrison-Gomez. He joined a large number of Scouts from Troop 185 who have gone on to earn this award. Nationally, the number of Scouts who reach Eagle is about 5%. In the 21 cities and towns that are in the Knox Trail Council in 2013, it was 6.5%. Since 1978, Troop 185 has had 133 Eagle Scouts out of the several hundred boys that have joined the Troop, which is close to 20%. This would not have been possible without the high quality program and the dedication of the youth and adult leadership to motivate and support Scouts to reach this prestigious award.
The parents of Seth exchanged badges and pins following Seth taking the “Eagle Charge” and saying the “Eagle Scout Promise.” Seth nominated Ann King to receive a pin in recognition of her mentorship to him. Seth will also receive further certificates from local and national political leaders and a flag that has been flown over the Capitol building in Washington. Finally, Seth received an eagle carved out of ironwood from the same area of Mexico that the Ms. Lavin is supporting with the Mexican Troop Project.
The Troop meets on Monday evenings from 7:30-9:00 p.m. at St. John’s School in Wellesley. The next meeting will be after the summer break on September 6. 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, please contact Scoutmaster Fortini at john.fortini@Scouting.org.
