Lesko and Walsh Honor Local Scouts

Last week the 2010 Eagle Scout and Gold Award recipients gathered at Brookhaven Town Hall to be honored for their outstanding achievements. Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko and Deputy Supervisor Kathleen Walsh led the awards ceremony, paying tribute to the 96 men and 24 women whose perseverance and community involvement qualified them to receive these honors.

The Eagle Scout rank and Gold Award are the highest achievements that can be attained through the Boy and Girl Scouts, respectively. Both awards require potential recipients to complete self-driven projects that aim to impact the surrounding community, as well as to benefit the leadership skills, personal values, and career interests of those who undertake them.

Sachem East graduate Dean Nicolai spent last summer executing plans for a memorial walkway to honor members of the Holbrook Fire Department. He expressed his gratitude to the Scout program for affording him opportunities above and beyond those available to the average teenager.

“I would ask my friends what they did that weekend,” he joked, “They’d say that they played Xbox, I’d say that I climbed a mountain.”

Kaitlin Burkhart of Miller Place also reflected upon her experiences as a Scout. After learning that there are 182,000 breast cancer patients on Long Island, she dedicated two years to making 100 “Anti-Ouch Pouches.” These bags came complete with ice packs to help reduce patients’ discomfort post-surgery.

“There’s so much more to Girl Scouts than just cookies,” she said. “Girl Scouting is all about helping people, working as a team to get things done.”

The effects of the scouts’ efforts can be seen throughout the Brookhaven community. Recent Sachem East graduate Thomas Schultz spent last summer designing and painting the United States map on the Tamarac Elementary School playground, while classmate James Young constructed weather-proof Stations of the Cross at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Holbrook.

After spending a year at American University in Washington, D.C., Sachem alum Harold Roberts has seen firsthand how involvement in Boy or Girl Scouts can benefit a person far beyond the here and now.

“College is all about team projects, coordinating, and working with other people. I was able to learn all of that from Scouts,” Roberts attested.

Fourth Council District Councilwoman Connie Kepert also weighed in on the lasting influence of a scout’s experience.

“Looking at high school students, I can tell who is going to be a success in life. It’s not always the smartest kids, the kids with the most talent or the athletic kids. It’s those who persevere. You will all be successful,” she declared.

Lesko has worked with several Eagle Scout and Gold Award recipients, and has witnessed the lasting impact that each individual has had in our area.

“[Scouts] is something both tangible and creative,” he said, “Something that you can actually point to and say for certain, ‘That scout had a visible, unique effect on the community.’”

Other attendees at Tuesday’s ceremony included Suffolk County Girl Scouts CEO Yvonne Grant, Suffolk County Boy Scouts CEO Dirk Smith, and 6th Council District Councilman Daniel Panico.