Troop 5 – Bronxville, NY

Congratulations! to all scouts and adult leaders who completed this very challenging adventure. Troop 5 scouts walked the length of the Bronx River parkway all the way to Kensico dam and back. As one of the participants explained “The weather was horrible towards the end, and it made it really hard.  But in the end it was a good experience.  We never thought it was going to be that hard, but we pushed through to the end.” Now that’s the scout spirit.

Great job scouts! Keep pushing through.

Jun. 27, 2018: On Monday, June 18, two members of Bronxville’s Boy Scout Troop 5 advanced to Eagle Scout, the highest rank possible in Boy Scouts, along with 14 other advancements.

A Court of Honor ceremony was held at The Reformed Church of Bronxville to recognize the journey each Scout has taken and to officially advance Kenny Taylor and Clay Layton to the rank of Eagle.

These two young men join a very elite group—only six percent of all Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle, according to Scouting magazine. Since Troop 5 was officially re-chartered in 1990 by Scoutmaster Ray Pfeister, 77 boys have achieved Eagle. This is a testimony to the strength and commitment of the boys, the adult leadership, and the parents of Troop 5. Becoming an Eagle Scout is a journey of commitment, learning, skill, and leadership. In Scouting, the path to Eagle typically begins at the age of ten or eleven, usually takes five to seven years to achieve, and must be completed before the age of eighteen. There are 325 requirements to become an Eagle Scout, including thirteen Eagle and nine elective merit badges, and completion of an Eagle Project.

The Eagle Project is a service project conceived of, planned, funded, organized, and executed under the leadership of the Eagle Scout candidate. An Eagle Scout service project can take months to plan and easily exceed 200 man-hours of work by groups of 20 or more volunteers managed by the Scout. As Joe Landy noted during his remarks on what it takes to become an Eagle Scout:

“To quote the 1938 Handbook for Scoutmasters: An Eagle Scout is a young man who is qualified to help others as well as take care of himself. His badge is not a decoration, but rather a symbol of knowledge and ability.”

Joseph Landy

The Eagle Court of Honor was well attended by parents, friends, family members, troop members, and many other supporters of the advancing Scouts, including the past Troop 5 Scoutmaster, retired executive board member of the Boy Scouts of America and Silver Buffalo award recipient Joseph Landy. Mr. Landy praised the new Eagle Scouts on their achievement and encouraged them to live the Scout Law, show leadership in life, and continue to give back to their communities. As Mr. Landy administered the Eagle Scout Oath to the new Eagle Scouts for the first time, Kenny and Clay stood together with all attending Eagles.

Kenny Taylor‘s Eagle Project focused on blazing trails and creating a trail map in Sprain Ridge Park in Yonkers, a project that was conceived of while he rode his mountain bike in the park.

Clay Layton‘s project involved cleaning and organizing several food pantries at the CSA Soup Kitchen in Mount Vernon, a place where Clay had volunteered on numerous occasions to make and serve meals over his years in Boy Scout

L to R: James Rohr (Star), Isaiah Weir (First Class), Edward Phillips (Star), Hudson Schnier (First Class), and Dev Tarwala (Second Class).

A standard Court of Honor was also held on June 18, where fourteen Scouts achieved rank advancements. JP Denfeld, Eric Modesitt, and Jeffrey Modesitt advanced to Life Scout, Edward Phillips and James Rohr advanced to Star Scout, Hudson Schnier, Isaiah Weir, and Luke Stinga advanced to First Class Scout, Hunter Denfeld, Austin Lawless, Dev Tarwala, Will Tinson, and Toshi Odaira advanced to Second Class Scout, and Charlie Hodulik advanced to Tenderfoot Scout. In addition, 15 Merit Badges were awarded, including Citizenship in the Community and the World, Architecture, Music, Railroading, Emergency Preparedness, Family Life, Firem’n Chit, and Cooking among others. One Scout, Edward Phillips, completed the prestigious National Youth Leadership Training.
Andrew Mager, Jeffrey Modesitt, Eric Modesitt, and Michael Krajniczyn acted as masters of ceremony for the Court of Honor. Karsten Schnier was master of ceremony for the Eagle ceremony. Luke Stinga shared an opening prayer for both. It was announced that Scoutmaster Kevin Taylor is stepping down after five years of leading the troop, spurring a lengthy standing ovation. Jon Denfeld was named Scoutmaster.

Pictured at top: Eagle Scouts Kenny Taylor (L) and Clay Layton.

Photos by Margaret Mager

By Margaret Mager, Community Service Liaison, Bronxville Boy Scout Troop 5

On June 22, 11 adults and 19 scouts set out for the Adirondack Lodge from scout field with the intention of summiting multiple peaks in upstate New York. The troop arrived on Friday afternoon, setting up their tents and preparing to hike the next morning. The weather was uncooperative to a high degree, making the campsites wet and muddy. Despite this, the next morning three groups departed from the camp. Two groups were heading for the summit of Mt. Marcy, the tallest peak in New York state at 5,433 feet. The other was heading for Mt. Phelps which reaches 4,161 feet.

The first group heading for Mt. Marcy was led by Vincent Lavechia and Jon Denfeld. It consisted solely of those previously heading for the Philmont backpacking trip in New Mexico (It has been shifted to Alaska because of fire-related dangers). They departed at approximately 5:45 A.M. hoping to complete the hike before the weather worsened. The second group was mainly senior scouts who were not going to Philmont. They left at 6:30 with similar goals. They were also accompanied by two former Troop 5 eagle scouts: Jack O’Neill and Anthony Crinieri, as well as their fathers, Jimmy O’Neill and Michael Crinieri. The final group departed at (please insert time) bound for a different peak, This time Mt. Phelps. Mt. Marcy was a 15 mile hike while the Phelps hike was 9 miles. The trek up Mt. Marcy was interesting topographically as the majority of the ascent was in the last mile. The rest of the path was relatively flat and sometimes even traveled down hill. About half a mile from the summit the tree cover faded, leaving nothing to shelter us from the wind and rain which grew stronger the closer we came to the summit.

Both trails were wet, muddy, and slippery. This especially posed a problem in descent when the slick rocks brought fear of slipping and falling. Fortunately, nobody was injured. All the groups eventually returned to the campground for a supper made by the scouts themselves. Some younger scouts even lit their own fire in an attempt to earn their Fir’man Chit, an award certifying scouts to carry fire-lighting devices such as matches and lighters as well as light camp or cooking fires. The next morning they had another scout-made breakfast and finished a mile-long hike around Heart Lake. Unfortunately they were forced to leave the campsite early Sunday afternoon due to difficulties with the weather.

Isaiah Weir

On Sunday, June 3rd the troop and I did a 20+ mile hike on the Old Croton Aqueduct trail. We started at 7:30 A.M. from the Croton Gorge Park in Croton on the Hudson and finished at Untermyer Park in Yonkers. The Croton Aqueduct trail follows the route of the Old Croton Aqueduct, which carried water to New York City from 1842 to 1955. The hike was tough and took all day. The crew consisted of six scouts: Marco La Vecchia, Luke Stinga, David Stinga, Sebastian Proano, Andrew Mager, and James Rhor. There were also three adults: Vince La Vecchia, Alex Proano, and Robert Stinga. We started our hike by the beautiful New Croton Dam. As we went on we traveled through trees, backyards, towns, and schools. Along the hike, there was Weir Chambers. These Weir Chambers were used to control the flow of the water for repairs, inspections or to completely drain the line. Also, ventilators were all over the trail and each scout would touch them for good luck. We ate lunch by the soccer field and we were able to watch a game. It was fun to walk throw the all eleven different communities. We ended with a satisfying walk through Untermyer park, a familiar place for past Eagle projects of Troop 5. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/troop5bronxville/albums/72157691810678730

May 18, 2018- Most of those in attendance arrive. We left from the church parking lot at 3, spent an eternity driving, and found ourselves there at 7. It was a weird feeling because it was still light out, as that what happens in spring. Not all of us could have made it on that day, though. That night it was only the Denfeld Brothers and their dad, The myself, my little brother and dad, the Meruccio Brothers, their dad, Austin Lawless, and Issac ‘I-can’t-rmember-his-last-name’ along with his dad. Hunter Denfeld made mac and cheese for the kids while my dad cooked the adults some jambalaya. No tents for this trip, lean to-s only. The younger scouts (Everyone except the La Vecchias) earned their fireman chit that night.

May 19- The Proanos (father and son) arrived very early in the morning to settle in. I cooked the troop some mountain man breakfast along with Hunter denfeld, who coincidentally made mountain man too. After eating and preparing for heavy rain, we set out for the fort. Me, being a bad scout yet resourceful, forgot rain gear and made a makeshift poncho out of a trash bag. I wore that the whole day as we traveled the fort, learning about it’s rich history as a French, British, and American fort along with it’s service in three different wars. The reenactors made us march like real soldiers from that time, later they would reenact not just musket fire but cannon fire as well. Rain refused to stop us as we not only looked at a piece of American history, but enjoyed the amazing views, gardens, and homemade meals. When we returned to camp, I found out that I had a raincoat the whole time and did not need to wear the trashbag at all. It was okay, because once again Hunter Denfeld did not disappoint us with the food, cooking burgers, hot dogs, and bringing 3 full bags of family sized chips. Many stories and laughs were shared.

May 20- Guess who made us pancakes and bacon? Hunter. The bacon was great, the pancakes were alright, and the weather was horrible. It had rained harder than the day before, which encouraged a swift pack-out. The only thing which slowed us down was explaining the trash sweep to the younger scouts. We had to sweep three times…

Not even 10 minutes driving from the campsite, Mr. Proano had a flat tire, and we stopped at a local outlet mall to buy food, discount camping gear, and coffee. We fixed the tire with ease and continued to go home. I had to drop Austin at his house, after that my family returned home to hot bowls of pasta, and some vanilla ice cream in the fridge.

Giovanni La Vecchia