Troop 5 – Bronxville, NY

Troop 5 staged a Grand Court of Honor on Sunday, June 12. Approximately 125 scouts, parents and friends joined the troop in celebrating various awards and achievements and welcoming Troop 5′s newest Eagle Scouts, Shane O’Neil and Luke Dutton, to the group of Troop 5 Eagle alumni .

Cameron Smith served as the master of ceremonies for the regular court of honor. Dr. Kenneth Ruge, pastor of The Reformed Church, gave the invocation. He was followed by various awards of new rank to 18 scouts — 10 were honored as new scouts in the troop with the presentation of the Scout Rank, and there were 6 new First Class scouts and 2 new Star Scouts. Also, 30 merit badges were awarded to the scouts, many of which were earned at Merit Badge Saturday in Scarsdale in April. Also of note, Michael Landy was mentioned as one of the first 12 scouts in the country to earn the new Robotics merit badge in Boston in May.

After the rank and merit badge awards, leadership positions were announced for the 2011/2012 scout year. Special recognition was also given to scouts who participated in the Great Saunter, a 32 mile trek around Manhattan, scouts who completed their CPR certification, scouts who completed their instruction course for the scuba diving merit badge and scouts who participated in last month’s Camporee at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Finally, Will Rabsey, Michael Landy, Jason Cushman, Jack O’Neill and Tommy Meade were all given special awards for their exemplary attendance this last year at the various meetings and activities.

The regular Court of Honor was followed by an Eagle Court of Honor that Michael Landy hosted as Master of Ceremonies. After a delicious meal served by the Duttons and O’Neils, an invocation was given by Mr. Steve Magneson of Christ Church. The special guest speaker was the president of the Westchester-Putnam Council, Mr. David Walsh, who gave a memorable speech that reflected on his 50 years in scouting. Mr. Bender reviewed what it means to be an Eagle Scout and reflections were given by both Mr. Carley and Mr. Landy. Perhaps the most memorable part of the evening was a special candlelight presentation of the scout law that the scouts gave as a gift to Shane and Luke. A flame was passed from Mr. Ranieri (their first scoutmaster) to Mr. Carley and to Mr. Landy to Luke and Shane and then to 12 scouts who each repeated a law and what it meant to them. After that, Shane and Luke received their Eagle Badges and pinned special pins on their mothers and fathers.

It was a fun and memorable evening for all. We are thrilled for Shane and Luke and look forward to following in their footsteps one day!

We actually didn’t know what we were in store for when we agreed to attend the West Point Camporee this year.  All we knew was that it was difficult top get into and therefore it must be fun!  We expected to see a lot of cadets, a lot of other scouts and some military-related events.  What we actually experienced was so much more:  A veritable non-stop series of challenges from the moment we arrived.

The weekend started out with a caravan of 5 dads driving 26 scouts to West Point, New York.  When we first arrived, things were going fairly smoothly until we learned we could either hike or drive to the actual camping area.  The scouts preparing for Philmont (Chris Landy, Steve Ircha and Will Stoeffhaas) hiked something called Bull Hill with Mr. Brusco which was basically 4 miles over very steep and rugged terrain.  The rest of us drove and were dropped off with all of the gear and were left waiting…..waiting…..and waiting…..for some adults to show up so we could figure out where our camp was.

After a long while and just as the last glimmer of light left us, we all found one another, trudged through the mud with our gear and settled near a parachute hanger.  Wouldn’t you know, our allotted campsite was occupied by another troop!  We straightened things out with the site after awhile but it took us some time to straighten our tents up into a nice tight formation.  We succeeded, hit the sack and were roused early to breakfast and calisthenics with one of the cadets.  Following an opening ceremony, we participated in a contest of 16 events and a number of orienteering challenges.  We practiced first aid, wilderness shelter construction, tossing hand grenades (No bangs so they must have been duds!), teamwork challenges, pistol shooting, marching drills, firebuilding and all kinds of calisthenics.  Patrick Bisconti led a group in pushups and situps in what was to be one of the highest posted scores of the day (Patrick did 65 pushups in one minute!).  We were perfect with our knot tying and crushed a couple of competitors in a rowing race around a lake.  Perhaps the most fun was a tactical game we played where we ran through the mud with some mock rifles and had to radio some information in before sprinting to the finish line.  Overall, we thought we did pretty well but some other wimpy troops must have debased themselves and begged for extra points a little more than we did.

There were a lot of other activities, as well.  A three star general arrived in a very cool helicopter and the cadets put on a show of attacking under enemy fire using yellow and purple flares.  Finally, the night ended with a concert hosted by the cadets and the largest bonfire any of us have ever seen.  The closing ceremony was something to remember with all of the troops lined up in their Class A’s (There were 5,000 scouts there) and marching before a review unit while the cadet drummers and buglers played.

The logistics leaving were no better than the ones arriving.  One of the scouts was lost for a little while but eventually found us and we hit the road.  While we now understand what they mean by the saying in the Army, “Hurry up and wait”, many of us thought this was the best weekend trip we’ve ever taken with the troop.

On May 7, 5 scouts and 4 adults took part in the 2011 Great Saunter.  This is a LONG trek that follows the shorelines all of the way around the hilly terrain of Manhattan with a group called the Shorewalkers who has been doing this for 30 years.  It may not sound like much, but this “walk in the parks” is over 31 miles long.

There is a lot to see and learn about New York City on this trip.  We learned what was used as landfill for old parts of the city that use to be swamps like Battery Park (Do you know?);  We saw where the trains boarded ferries across the Hudson in New Jersey to bring their goods to New York City;  We took pictures by the little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge, the Intrepid, and a memorial to the Irish Potato Famine.  Probably the most interesting part was when we stood at the site where Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from the Indians (For less than the price of taxi ride from downtown to uptown).  A Tulip tree stood on that same spot in Inwood Park at the northern tip of Manhattan for 280 years and was the biggest tree in all of Manhattan.  All of these factoids were courtesy of our guide, Michael Ostrewa, who has been walking the streets of New York for over 50 years.

The scouts who completed their 20 mile hike requirements for the Hiking Merit Badge included James Tubridy, Martin Wilkins and Tommy Meade.  Mr. Tubridy, Mr. Chrystal and Mrs. Roeder also completed that part of the hike.  That group said goodbye to us (Chris Landy, Clark Gordon and Mr. Landy) somewhere around St. Nicholas Park in Harlem.  Our trio finished the 31 mile hike in just under 12 hours.  Truth be told, none of us could walk very far or fast on our tender feet after this “walk in the park” was completed.  I guess once a tenderfoot, always a tenderfoot  Smiles came back to our famished bodies when we sunk our teeth into the best cheeseburger ever made at The Heartland Brewery which awaited us at the finish line.  We had a great time and convinced ourselves that Philmont will be child’s play compared to the Great Saunter.

On a frigid January 24 evening, 45 scouts, 4 webelos and a bunch of adults went on a geocaching adventure. Geocaching is a game for treasure hunters who like to hike. There are hundreds of thousands of geocaches around the world that are maintained by individuals or groups of various kinds. The idea is to find the geocache with a GPS after having been given only latitude and longitude coordinates. Often there are obscure clues that give hints as to where to find a cache — it can be quite a challenge. However, in order to allow us to find several geocaches quickly, the ones we sought were set up for our troop by Mr. Cushman and other scout volunteers, and are not listed on the official geocaching website. When everybody arrived at the church, Mr. Cushman, a geocaching expert might I add, gave us a crash course on how to work a handheld GPS and gave us our coordinates. Then…. We were off. The geocaches were hidden at the library, the scout field, Sagamore Park and in front of Saint Joseph School. Scouts were able to exchange trinkets that they brought for things in the geocache container. After the hunt/hike we returned to the church and had hot cocoa and cookies that were prepared by Troop 5’s favorite Mom’s (Thanks Mom!). There is actually a geocaching merit badge and some scouts expressed interest in earning it. A fun night was had by all and we’re certain to put this on our list of Troop 5′s regular scout activities.

Tim Weir

Valley Forge was a very rewarding and windy experience. After leaving the Reformed Church parking lot right after school, we set out for Valley Forge. The drive was extended due to heavy, bumper-to-bumper traffic on the NJ Turnpike. After finally arriving at the campsite despite confusing directions and frustrating logistics, we set up camp in the pitch black and had dinner at 10:30 pm. Both First Class Cooking chefs (Cameron Smith and Charlie Vorbach) cooked delicious meals that were devoured by everyone. However, cleanup didn’t go so smoothly and it took us a while to figure it out. Thanks to “Super-Chip” Cushman, cleanup finally was completed and the campsite was organized. Since this was Troop 5’s first Camporee, many lessons were learned. Lesson 1: Go to McDonalds on the Friday night of Valley Forge. We were all exhausted and slept very well that night.

We woke at 6:00 am and started cooking breakfast. Once again, the meals were delicious; however, our cleanup time wasn’t beaten by much. Super-Chip came to the rescue again and recommended that we take the cover off of our cooking canopy, which would have been blown away in the 50 mph winds. We tied down everything and our work paid off. Unlike some other troops who had to check out early because of excess wind damage to much of their gear, our tents and canopy withstood the gael force winds. We then walked to the bus that transported us to Valley Forge National Park. Before the opening ceremony, Philadelphia Fife and Drum played numerous patriotic tunes. They taught us many interesting things. Did you know that the British sang Yankee Doodle Dandy (aka deceitful fool) as an insult to the American patriots, yet the Americans eventually sang it for motivation? After the Philadelphia Fife and Drum’s performance, the Squires of Song, an acapella group that was made up of a bunch of singers who could have been as old as George Washington, sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag”, “Glory Halleluiah”, and “Proud to be an American”. After several speeches by the Chairman of the Event and Tom Harrington, the Scout Executive of the Cradle of Liberty Council, Joe Landy of Connecticut was recognized for being on the National Board of the Boy Scouts of America and for being present at the BSA’s 99th Valley Forge Pilgrimmage.

We then set off to participate in a number of demonstrations. In the seven stations that we went to we learned many things about being a soldier at Valley Forge. For example, at the medical station (voted most popular by Troop 5), we learned that George Washington died because he had too much blood taken out of him (almost 128 ounces!) when he had a fever. This apparently was state of the art medical treatment at the time that only Dracula could appreciate. Next, we saw an authentic cannon being shot, which was very cool to see, and finally, we learned that soldiers would have to listen to the beat of a drummer for commands so that they would know what to do on a noisy battlefield.

After the seven stations, we visited a few extra places to earn the 2011 Encampment Award. The most memorable attraction was Washington’s headquarters. Approximately thirty people lived in this small house (including Washington’s Aide de Camp Alexander Hamilton) during the Continental Army’s encampment at Valley Forge. We also saw replicas of huts in which ordinary soldiers would have stayed. When we arrived back at the campsite, we relaxed for a few hours then ate dinner (courtesy of scouts Brian Chrystal and Jack O’Neill). We finally went to a somewhat cheesy campfire show (they couldn’t light a fire because it was too windy). However, Troop 5 represented themselves well in their Water Conservation Skit. We went to bed after the campfire and woke up early the next morning, broke down camp, and went home.

While none of us would probably admit that we would have enjoyed living through the hardships that Revolutionary soldiers experienced, we had a great time and learned a lot about winter camping.

Christopher Landy

On Friday January 28, 15 scouts and 8 dads left Bronxville for the annual ski weekend at Gore Mountain. We drove up in three brand new SUVs provided by Council. The SUV’s were all black and we looked like part of the secret service. Half way up we had a delicious dinner at a rest stop along the way. Later that evening we arrived at the Boy Scout Farmhouse.

The farmhouse was located at Camp Read where we camped last summer. The winter sports staff, like in past years, was very helpful and hospitable. The weekend included a a professional cook on staff who cooks great breakfasts and dinners. For breakfast we had pancakes, french toast, bacon and sausages. Some us us wanted to stay forever. For dinner we had roasted chicken parts, mashed potatoes, and a veggie. Lunches were bagged and included 2 sandwiches, an apple, a drink, and a snack.

The camp has a volunteer staff who were incredibly helpful and provided information about the mountain, ski lessons, and rental equipment. They thought of everything down to the finest paid detail and helped us get to the mountain in the morning.

On Saturday, some of the scouts took lessons although most scouts and parents ended up hitting the slopes on either skis or “boards”. It had snowed about a foot and the conditions were great all day Saturday. After dinner on Saturday we had a movie night (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and topped it off with ice cream sundaes.

On Sunday, we awoke to even more snow which improved the conditions with the freshest of powder. We skied until 1:00 and then met up at the SUV’s for our departure.

During the weekend, the scouts used some free time teaching themselves First Class requirements and sharing good times. The Dads had a great time overseeing the boys and getting to know each other better.

Given how much fun everyone had, this sure seems like a trip we’ll repeat every year!

Steve Ircha, Sr.

On November 20, 15 scouts and 3 adult leaders went to a Hudson Valley orienteering meet in Fahnestock State Park just off the Taconic State Parkway.   If you’ve never been to one of these competitions before, they are a lot of fun and intensely competitive.  The object is to work your way around a course that has been set up in the woods moving from checkmark to checkmark as fast as you can.  All you have is a map, a compass, a scoresheet, a few friends and a lot of intuition.  I would describe it as a timed scavenger hunt in the woods.

When we first arrived, we saw a lot of army soldiers who were practicing on very difficult orienteering courses.  We were then assisted by a man who had been teaching and practicing orienteering for 50 years.  He gave us a little tutorial on what we were supposed to do.  Little tricks like always holding a  map with it oriented properly (ie even if it is upside down), the meanings of certain symbols and how to fold a map properly came in handy.  After the lesson, we split up into three groups of five and went on the beginner white course while one group braved a more difficult yellow course.  The course was pretty easy and essentially just circled the lake.  There were a half dozen or so checkpoints where we had to carefully mark our cards with special stamps so that we could prove we visited the checkpoint.  After lunch, everybody decided to go on a harder course.  Naturally the adults got lost along the way but we eventually found one another.  Some scouts went with Mr. Landy on the hardest course and some went with Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Weir.   

Orienteering was a lot of fun and a useful skill.  Best of all, all of the scouts on the trip passed their advancement requirement for orienteering where we had to follow a course with a map and compass for at least a mile.

After climbing, we hiked back to our campsite, put up our tents as the sun was quickly setting and made a fire.  Dinner was cooked by Tim Weir (First Class Cooking), who made tacos, and Jason Cushman (First Class Cooking), who made hobo burgers.  After that, we had S’mores and attempted to stay warm by the fire.  Since we weren’t very successful staying warm, we all decided to go to bed and hoped that our sleeping bags would keep the frigid night air out.  We were wrong…  The temperatures dipped below 32˚ and many of us scurried in the middle of the night to put another layer of clothing on.

We woke up bright and early, restarted the fire with some left-over coals and ate a hearty breakfast by those First Class cooks and Chris Miller (Second Class Cooking).   After breakfast, some scouts went geocaching and found a cache in the hollow of a tree overlooking a huge swath of the Hudson Valley – simply beautiful.   We finished packing up and hit the road for home.

Tim Weir

Kevin Bisconti                                                                                                             2/1/10

Eagle Scout Project                                                           Shelter 14 at Ward Pound Ridge

                                                                                           Pound Ridge, New York

            During the last weekend in January 2010 I completed my Eagle Scout Project, which I had started on the 17^th of January. The project took three days to complete after three months of preparation and waiting. My Football season ended a few days after Thanksgiving, during which I received an injury that would set me back on the project. I had originally planned to do the project some time over the Christmas break but was delayed once again due to poor weather and the lack of scouts and other friends that would have come up to help.

            When I was finally able to start the project on the 17^th of January our main goal was to take apart the old roof.  We arrived there at around 9:15 and got straight to work, we used pitch forks and shingle removers to remove the old shingles from the roof. We did this up until around 12 noon when we broke for lunch. After lunch we finished up clearing off the roof of the shingles. Also, we took out all the nails that had held in the previous shingles. The time then was around 1 PM when took tarps and stapled them into the roof to protect it against any rain or snow. Next I lead the scouts in a sweep of the area around the shelter to make sure that we had gotten all the roofing materials cleaned up. After that we drove all the trash down to the dumpster where we unloaded the pickup truck that the park had lent us. After we had emptied the truck we returned home, it was 4:30 PM.

            I was not able to return that following weekend because my school had midterms that week and I would not be able to get anybody from my school or troop to help me that weekend also I needed to study myself.

            However the following weekend on the 30^th of January I was able to get a small group of guys together and I had planed to lay down the felt paper so that we could lay down shingles the next day. When we arrived the roof had snow and ice on it so my first priority was to clear the roof the best we can. We did this by using shovels and brooms, to clear the ice. We were not able to clear all the ice so I decided that we would have to leave the roof uncovered and hope that the sun would be able to dry the roof. We did this because we could not lay down the paper over the ice or that would cause the wood on the roof to rot.  So we ended up leaving that day without laying down any of the felt paper.

            The next day I was able to put together a larger group of guys to go up to the shelter. We met at my house at 8:30 AM and arrived there at around 9:15. My plan had worked, all the ice had been melted away and now we where able to start laying down the felt paper. I led the scouts in rolling out the paper and aligning it properly on the roof. When we reached the chimney I had the scouts cut the paper to fit the area. At around 10:30 a man by the name of Chris Ferrara came to instruct us on how to lay down the shingles. He taught us how to measure and cut the shingles also how to lay down the chalk line that we would need to lay down the shingles properly. Mr. Ferrara only instructed us in these methods he did not help build the shelter’s roof. Since we only had one side of the roof covered with paper I decided to split the group up and have the two younger kids finish up with the paper on the other side of the roof while I had the two older kids join myself and Mr. Ferrara in cutting and starting to place the shingles down. The following steps are what were done that day as far as laying down the shingles

• Cut full shingles down into 6,12 and 18 inch pieces so that they can be laid going up in that order on the side of the roof.
• Once laid on in that order start tacking full pieces and lay them out as far as you can reach
• Once you reach the chimney cut the shingles down until they form a seal on the chimney
• Now on the other side of the roof you need to repeat the first step and connect the shingles from the other side
• When at the ridge of the roof fold over the shingle and nail down to the other side
• Repeat all these steps on the opposite side of the roof
• Once both the sides are done you place a cap on the ridge of the roof a cap is like a small shingle that goes on to protect the very top of the roof

            Once all of these steps where completed I lead the scouts in a sweep of the surrounding area to make sure that we did not leave any building materials around. This project came to an end at 4:45 PM on January 31, 2010.

Two Boy Scouts from Troop 5 in Bronxville were presented with the Ad Altare Dei (to the altar of God) award at a special mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday, April 18, 2010.  The Ad Altare Dei is the oldest religious emblem program available to Boy Scouts and is designed to help Catholic Scouts of the Roman Rite develop a fully Christian way of life in their faith community.  Steven Ircha and Savino Brusco, both 7th Graders at The Bronxville School, completed the rigorous program over an eight month period and had to be approved for the emblem by an official Boy Scout board of review.

Photo (Jane Ircha):

Steven Ircha (left)  and Savino Brusco (right)

Below is a link to “My Hometown Bronxville” which this article appeared in.

http://www.myhometownbronxville.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1658:boy-scouts-ircha-and-brusco-receive-ad-altere-dei-award&catid=9:community-service-organizations&Itemid=7