Smith improves nature trails

Lockport High School's Jacob Smith received the Eagle Award after completing his service project in which he planned and led volunteers in the renovation of the nature trails in Rollin T. Grant Gulf Wilderness Park in the city.

Ognibene improves memorial garden

Tom Ognibene's Eagle project took place at John Kennedy School in Batavia where he expanded the memorial garden. The garden was originally created in memory of Mike Houseknecht and the Raines teachers.

Lockport scouts feed the homeless

Boy Scouts Parker Gurnett, Ian Donohue, Charles Grimmer, and Tanner Gurnett of Troop 82 recently delivered hot dinners to Lockport Cares Emergency Homeless Shelter. Troop 82 held a Chicken Dinner at the Elks Lodge in Lockport then brought to meals to Lockport Cares to provide the night's guests a delicious meal.

Sanders saves his brother from choking

Steven Sanders, of Cub Scout Pack 23 in LeRoy, saved his 3 year old brother who was choking on his breakfast. Steven immediately grabbed him and dislodged the food using first aid tactics he learned in scouting. That is fast thinking -- and calm -- shown by a 10 year old!!

Schultz builds Christmas wreaths for York

Luke Schultz received his Eagle Scout award as a member of Leicester Troop 85. Schultz’s Eagle project was to rebuild the holiday wreaths that are put up on the light poles in the Town of York.

Anderson berings improvements to Temple Hill Cemetery

Zachary Anderson of Boy Scout Troop 70 of Geneseo joined the ranks of Eagle Scouts. His Eagle Project was to design and build a memorial garden for cremation burials at Temple Hill Cemetery in Geneseo. The project featured a park-like setting with walkways and a sitting area with a bench. The entrance and walkways are paved, with flowers and plantings accenting the entrance. Scout and community volunteers assisted in the project. Zachary led the team of volunteers that took three days to excavate a 344-square-foot-area to a depth of 4 feet.

Pyskaty holds Community Missions fundraiser

Starpoint High School senior and member of Troop 8 Matthew Pyskaty orchestrated an interesting fundraiser for his Eagle Project: He brought together 3 high school jazz ensembles from across Niagara County for a concert to benefit Community Missions of Niagara County.

Harris helps grow Bone Marrow Registry

Wesley Harris, a Barker High School student and member of Newfane-based Boy Scout Troop 22, is doing his part to help grow the bone marrow donor registry. Harris has made arrangements with his fellow scouts to man his sign-up booth at a number of events and destinations in the Western New York region. He's aiming to get 500 people added to The Bone Marrow Registry.

Troop 18 cleans up the Erie Canal

Every year, Boy Scout Troop 18 does a major clean-up of the towpath of the Erie Canal in Gasport. They typically collect 3 or 4 large garbage bags of trash plus a couple of appliances. This helps to keep this biking and hiking path in good shape.

Petterson builds kiosks

Orlando ‘Olie” Petterson of Avon is constructing an informational kiosk at the Avon school district’s seven-acre solar array to better inform visitors and students about the array, how it functions and how much energy it produces.

Petterson is no stranger to kiosk-building. He’s previously helped construct and install similar kiosks to mark an entrance to the Genesee Valley Greenway in Avon and at the Avon Sports Park off Spring Street near one of the baseball fields.

Earth Day clean-up activities

Multiple troops and dens took part in Earth Day related activities. In Medina, Boy Scout Troop 28 joined several other organizations in a community cleanup with the Scouts transporting and distributing donated mulch around shrubs and trees along the canal. In Gasport, tiger cubs from Pack 18 picked up the Erie Canal community. Further west in Lockport, Cub Scouts from Pack 4 and Boy Scouts from Troop 4 took part in their annual “garbage hike,” walking about five miles from the Gasport Road bridge west to Widewaters marina, gathering trash along the way.

PACK 18 DIGS OUT GASPORT

Gasport was pounded by 2 feet of snow on two days in mid-March. Having those days off from school for snow days, the scouts from pack 18 of Gasport remained industrious -- they did their good turn digging out fire hydrants throughout the area!

PACK 18 BRINGS CHRISTMAS TO A FAMILY IN NEED

Watch this story from WIVB -- it shows why Scouting is unmatched in its impact. Under the leadership of Scott Schultz, Cub Scout Pack 18 of Gasport brought Christmas to a young Lockport family who lost their husband & father to cancer last month. This is what the Christmas Spirit and Scouting Spirit are all about

http://wivb.com/2016/12/22/community-gives-back-to-lockport-family-that-suffered-heartbreaking-loss-before-holidays/

SCOUTS CONDUCT FLAG RETIREMENT CEREMONY

Members of the American Legion and VFW and Scouts from Troop 28 and Pack 28 gathered to conduct a flag burning ceremony in Medina. Worn and tattered flags were collected in a variety of disposals throughout Orleans County. The more than 1,500 flags (which included those gathered from local cemeteries) were burned in a proper ceremony, led by the Scouts. Boy Scout Christian Hahn read the meaning of the flag, its stars and stripes, while Boy Scout Aaron Miller and Cub Scout Landon Johnson cut away a red stripe, then a white stripe and finally the field of stars on the ceremonial first flag before retiring the rest to the burn barrel.

NAIRNE BUILDS FLAG RETIREMENT BOXES

Samuel Nairne of Boy Scout Troop 82 in Lockport lead a group of volunteers into making four flag retirement boxes.

The Town of Royalton is one of the four beneficiaries and the receptacle is now located at the town hall. The boxes were made so that anyone can easily dispose of the American flag in a proper manner when it is no longer in good shape. When the box is full, the Town can contact any local Boy Scout group to properly dispose of the flag in a respectful and ceremonious manner. Troop 82 holds a flag retirement ceremony annually.

This photo shows the Royalton town board with the flag retirement box.

SCOUTING FOR FOOD FEEDS THE HUNGRY

The Council's annual Scout For Food drive was held in November and it was amazingly successful. Here is on example that highlights its significance: Cub Scout Pack 18 of Gasport collected 1,072 items of food for the Gasport food pantry at the Zion Lutheran Church. That is a HUGE quantity for a town as small as Gasport!

PACK 18 BUILDS BAT HOUSES & BIRD HOUSES

Pack 18 of Gasport built bat houses and bird houses as part of their World Conservation Award. They will be donating them to Camp Dittmer and Camp Sam Wood. It's a great project that will attract mosquito-eating creatures to our camps and, at the same time, help bat populations that have been decimated by white nose syndrome.

FLANAGAN BRINGS PICNIC AREA TO HOAG

For his Eagle project, Matthew Flanagan delivered three picnic tables to the Hoag Library in Albion. They are a welcome addition to the outdoor area and the library staff will invite families to use the tables for story times and for other activities, including a quiet lunch spot.

TROOP 70 WORKS ON LETCHWORTH TRAIL

In early June, Geneseo Boy Scout Troop 70 helped with trail maintenance on the Letchworth Trail. They worked on drainage issues that plague the section going south from the Hogsback Overlook.

MORRILL BUILDS BAT HOUSES

Adam Morrill of Bergen and a member of Troop #6006 earned his Eagle Scout award. For his project, he built 10 bat houses for Godfrey’s Pond in Batavia. Morrill bought the materials, cut the wood, and assembled the bat houses on 12-foot posts.This is a critical project as bat populations have been decimated by disease in recent years.

SCOUTS CLEAN CANAL

Scouts from Lockport’s Boy Scout Troop 4 picked up litter and trash along their adopted section of the Erie Canal towpath. This year, the Scouts collected more than 60 pounds of litter in the stretch between the Gasport Road Bridge and Lockport’s Widewaters Marina. The event was held as part of the “Clean Sweep” held in conjunction with Earth Day, and orchestrated by the New York State Canal Corporation and Park & Trails New York.

DWYER RENOVATES VETERANS' MUSEUM

Garrett Dwyer’s Eagle project consisted of completing work to the Veteran’s Room at the Barker high school. The Veteran’s Room is a small-scale museum paying tribute to all of those who have served in the armed forces.

The scope of the project included the securing of donations used to build or purchase new display cases for the many artifacts that have been acquired over the years. Donations to purchase building materials came from family, friends and local businesses and Dwyer and friends logged in more than 118 hours to complete the project.

HOLLEY SCOUTS HELP AT SOUP KITCHEN

Cub Scout Pack 3062 of Holley volunteered at the Loaf and Ladle Soup kitchen held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in December. The boys helped set up, serve, and clean up, serving dozens of needy people and families. 

HEIMILLER GIVES US FLAGS THEIR DUE RESPECT

Nicholas Heimiller’s Eagle project was to build a brick firepit for VFW Post 8438 in Newfane. The VFW is a drop location for the community for old flags that need to be retired.

The VFW post didn’t have a good place to perform the respectful retirement ceremony, which involves burning the flags. Therefore, Nicholas and his team from Troop 22 built a brick firepit in order to help mitigate the large buildup of flags ready for retirement. The VFW Post currently has numerous large bags full of old flags ready for retirement and the flag retirement pit will provide a proper place to conduct the flag retiring ceremony.

CONNOLLY HELPS SAVE BLUEBIRDS

Mark Connolly of Troop 22 in  Newfane oversaw the construction and placement of bluebird houses throughout the trails of Krull Park in Olcott. Connolly studied and researched the bluebird habitat requirements and designs, and then plotted their optimal placement in the expansive park. He cut the wood and assembled the houses before mounting them in the park environs. Bluebirds -- the state bird -- were at one time endangered in New York, but projects like Mark's have brought them back and have helped them maintain healthy populations.

SCOUTING FOR FOOD 2015

Scouts and volunteer leaders from across the entire Iroquois Trail Council participated in the 29th annual "Scouting for Food" drive in November. The food collected is distributed to numerous emergency and crisis type agencies. All food collected in a district was distributed locally to agencies in that particular county.

The Council typically collects more than 30,000 food items per year.

As examples of how amazing this year's drive was, look at these totals from just a few of our units who happen to come from some of our smaller communities -- which shows you the incredible impact of our boys...

Holley Cub Scout Pack 3062 collected 559 items of food. All of the food was donated to the Eastern Orleans County Community Center.

Scouts in Troop and Pack 175 in Barre collected 478 food items which went to the food pantry of Community Action of Orleans & Genesee.

Pack 18 collected 587 food items that are being added to the Gasport Community Food Pantry that is hosted by Zion Lutheran Church.

WHEELER CLEANS UP LOCKPORT CEMETERY

In pursuit of Eagle Scout status, Troop 82's Dan Wheeler designed and administered a volunteer cleanup project at Stahler Cemetery on Beattie Avenue in the town of Lockport.

Over a seven-hour span on November 7, the crew led by Wheeler cleaned up brush around the cemetery, moved some headstones back into place, installed new drain tile in front of the caretaker's building to improve drainage there and wire-brushed and painted the wrought iron fence around the site.

MEYER REFURBISHES STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Colton Meyer of Troop 47 in Pendleton refurbished the Stations of the Cross path at St. Pius X Church in Getzville.

Meyer’s father helped install the 350-foot pathway, located behind the church, over 20 years ago...so this endeavor has come full circle.

About 40 to 50 volunteers helped with the project over the three days of construction,accounting for 300 total man hours.

SCHUTH BROTHERS IMPROVE KENDALL

Two Boy Scouts from Kendall Troop 94 became Eagle Scouts at their Court of Honor on Monday, August 10. Matthew Schuth and his brother Nicholas Schuth, sons of David and Cathy Schuth, were also recognized for their achievement by Assemblyman Steve Hawley.

Matthew and Nicholas have an older brother, Michael, who is also an Eagle Scout.

Matthew's Eagle project was building a picture place at the Kendall Community Park. Beginning by clearing trees and brush, the site was then backfilled for planting arborvitaes. A foundation and concrete pad from a former building are the base for a vinyl Arbor and are accessible by the stone walkway. This low maintenance backdrop has already been used for many formal photographs.

Nicholas' Eagle project was improving the Kendall Food Cupboard. Housed in the Kendall United Methodist Church, this vital community service needed additional storage space. Wood shelving was installed to allow overhead storage for light weight items and a full wall of shelves that more than doubled the shelving used for food. All food was removed from the shelving, inspected and placed on the new shelving per direction from Marty and Zina Goodenbery.

HILBERT BRINGS CANOE RACKS TO GODFREY'S POND

Visitors to the Genesee County Fish and Game Protective Association’s Godfrey’s Pond in Byron will notice brand new canoe racks at the site. The community can thank Eagle Scout Matthew Hilbert for the convenience. Hilbert is a member of Bergen Scout Troop 6031 of the Seneca District. The racks were built, stained, and installed in about a week and it took the efforts of fellow scouts, friends, family members, and Godfrey’s Pond personnel. 

LOMBARDI-HILL FEEDS THE HOMELESS

Eight-year-old Daniel Lombardi-Hill of Pack 4 in Lockport undertook a project to feed the area's homeless. He made an entire dinner meal himself for the Lockport CARES Homeless Shelter. He cut the lettuce for the salad, sliced the watermelon, baked brownies and rolled 27 meatballs for the baked ziti. Lombardi-Hill's generosity fed a dozen men, women and children that are at the shelter.

TROOP 82 VOLUNTEERS AT VIETNAM WALL

In June of 2015 the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall came to Lockport for a weekend and Troop 82 took an active role in helping out. They camped at the wall all weekend doing various activities and helping the public...tens of thousands of people visited the memorial. A few older scouts even stayed up all night long to assist veterans who were visiting the 24-hour display at quieter, more solemn hours.

EBLACKER IMPROVES HOSPICE GARDEN

The garden at Hospice of Orleans is now more accessible for residents and their families after Eagle candidate Randy Eblacker assembled a team of volunteers who added a path. Now, wheelchair-bound and other terminally-ill patients can tour the grounds and enjoy the open space, flowers, trees, and songbirds.

DEMPSEY UPGRADES FOOD PANTRY

Sean Dempsey was recently awarded the highest rank in Boy Scouts and in doing so became Avon’s 100th Eagle Scout. Sean’s Eagle Scout project oversaw the transformation of the Avon Food Pantry. Sean, with the help of fellow Scouts, cleaned, painted and insulated the Pantry. They also installed new light fixtures and a steel-plated ramp at the entrance of the Food Pantry for the safety of the volunteers.

CUB SCOUTS CLEAN SWAMPS

In April, Lockport's Pack 4 attended the annual spring open house put on by the Fish & Wildlife Service at the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge. While there, the cubs did a good deed, picking up trash from roadsides and the popular wildlife viewing overlooks.

ZIMMERMAN REFURBS PALACE THEATRE

Duffy Zimmerman, 17, completed his Eagle Scout project at the historic Palace Theatre in downtown Lockport.

Zimmerman, with the help of 38 fellow Scouts, family friends, relatives and Palace volunteers, refurbished the main floor of the theater.

With rollers in hand, the floors were painted red, from the stage to the back of the house, in between each row of seats. It was a much-needed undertaking for the 90 year-old landmark.

CHEVERIE BUILDS FIRE PREVENTION TOOLS

 

Andrew Cheverie of Albion and Troop 164 became an Eagle Scout after constructing two fire prevention props for the local fire department to use at open house events and at “TruckDay” at the Albion Primary School.

One prop is a two-dimensional wooden house with hinged flames the children can “put out” with a low-pressure hose. The second is a simulator to train children how to correctly open a door and crawl below smoke when they hear the smoke alarm go off. There is a full-size interior door leading to a short hallway containing descending cloth smoke.

TROOP 74 DIGS OUT HYDRANTS

After a recent fire in the Village of Livonia, Troop 74 decided that clearing fire hydrants was something they could do to help.  They couldn't find a time on such short notice to gather as a group and tackle the problem, so they just put the word out to "do what you can then report back what you did."  By the end of the weekend, several of our Scouts had cleared away over 3 dozen hydrants in their neighborhoods and the numbers are still growing.  Most of these hydrants were buried under 3 to 5 feet of snow!

PATT FEEDS THE HUNGRY

Webelo scout John Patt from Holley Cub Scout Pack 62 wanted to "feed the hungry kids". He created a program for his elementary school called "Rollin' In The Dough". Each student was given empty coin wrappers and asked to fill them. All the money collected went to the school's program, Food For Families, which helps feed local families by giving them groceries to help get through extended school breaks. This is the second year John did this program, and collected about $250 each year, helping over 30 families.

CALANDRA'S PROJECT BENEFITS US MILITARY

In January, 16 year-old Cameron Calandra of Troop 47 in Pendleton began the process of wrapping up his Eagle Scout project, which involves sending needed and requested items to U.S. troops stationed around the world.

Using the website anysoldier.com, Calandra developed a list of addresses and needed items in late August, then set to work collecting donations from family, friends and the community. He also used a website to crowdsource funds for the project, raising a total of $900 for supplies from his efforts.

Calandra and his crew of volunteers were able to fill 40 boxes with supplies for both male and female troops. He’ll be sending five boxes to each of eight different addresses, from Naval ships to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He also collected letters to the troops from students in the Barker Central School District, which will also be sent in the boxes.

TROOP 26 EAGLES MAKE AN IMPACT

 

Avon's Troop 26 has two new Eagle Scouts, Aidan Lewis and Jacob Peterson. Sean Dempsey was Avon’s 100th Eagle, so these two young men represent the start of the next 100 Eagle Scouts from Avon!

Aidan’s project was to build the kiosk at the start of the new Erie-Attica trail, and to insert the map and content for visitors to learn about the area.

Jake’s project involved moving the food and shelving for the Food Pantry from the old Catholic Church rectory basement to their new building.

2014 BY THE NUMBERS

In 2014 our scouts completed 22,690 hours of community service while collecting 12.5 tons of food for local food pantries.

COLE ORGANIZES "TREATS FOR TROOPS" DRIVE

 

 

Trevor Cole, a Life Scout in Livonia's Boy Scout Troop 4074 decided to do something for the servicemen who are stationed overseas. In a project he called Treats For Troops, Trevor collected Halloween candy from the students of Livonia's Elementary and Middle schools. For the few days after Halloween, Trevor had collection boxes at both schools and with daily reminders in the schools' announcements, the candy poured in. In 3 days the students and teachers contributed 59 pounds of candy, which Trevor and other Scouts from his troop packaged into over 250 snack size bags. He delivered these to Cynthia Strasburg, affectionately known as Mama Cindy, who will ship them to service men and women around the world through her Hand to Hand~Heart to Heart Soldier Fund.

"SCOUTING FOR FOOD" AIDS LOCAL FOOD PANTRIES

Scouts and volunteer leaders from across the entire Iroquois Trail Council participated in the 28th annual "Scouting for Food" drive in November. The food collected is distributed to numerous emergency and crisis type agencies. All food collected in a district was distributed locally to agencies in that particular county.

The Council typically collects 30,000 food items per year.

As examples of how amazing this year's drive was, look at these totals from just a few of our units...

Troop 59 and Pack 62 were working together to cover the Clarendon/Holley area and delivered 1133 pieces of food items to the Eastern Orleans County Community Center in Holley.

Troop and Pack 4077 collected, sorted and donated 1100 food items to the Nunda food pantry.

ALEX HANSEN OVERSEAS CLEAN-UP OF TONAWANDA CREEK

Eagle Scout Alex Hansen oversaw 2 dozen volunteers who hauled out 180 pounds of garbage from Tonawanda Creek in Batavia.

His project required the cooperation of Genesee ARC (who hauled away the garbage for free) and Sloat Tire to pick up the tires that were collected.

"The creek over the years has become really polluted with trash," Alex said. "People just throw tires and water heaters and even air conditioners right over the bridges in town. All this stuff gets washed to places, such as Kiwanis Park, and so we have people people cleaning because there's trash everywhere."

"We think this will make a positive difference for the community because people want to enjoy the creek again," Alex said. "We want to make it a better place for people and wildlife."

7 YOUNG MEN, 7 SERVICE PROJECTS

Troop 4174 of Livonia recently had a ceremony at which they recognized SEVEN Boy Scouts from their troop who earned the rank of Eagle this past year.

Their list of service projects is incredibly impressive...

James Damon: Designed and built an informational kiosk at Vitale Park for the Livingston County Planning Department, the Town of Livonia and the Conesus Lake Association Education Committee. The kiosk provides a place for the agencies to post information about Conesus Lake. The project was completed in October 2011.

Brady Davis: Gathered, organized and filled 500 sandbags for use by the Livonia, Lakeville, Hemlock and Conesus Fire Departments. The project was completed in October 2013.

Brian Gaffney: Completed Kinney Creek walking trail improvements, site of the old Lehigh Valley Railroad, for the Town of Livonia. The project was completed in April 2011

Devin Horan: Updated the Livonia High School Varsity Baseball diamond. The project, completed in October 2012, included removal of the old batting cage, construction of a new batting cage and two bullpens, placement of new turf and the addition of turf to existing hitting stations

Scott McLaughlin: Created a reflection garden at St. Matthew Church’s cemetery which features a granite bench, a walkway and lilac bushes. The project was completed in May 2011

Benjamin Sherman: Maintenance and repair of Hagerty Hall for St. Matthew Church. His project included both interior and exterior work as well as building new swing sets. The project was completed in August 2013.

Daniel Vogel: Labeled the storm drains in the village of Livonia that drain into Conesus Lake for the Conesus Lake Association. The project included locating all drains, cleaning curbs and affixing decals that will withstand harsh weather. The project was completed in September 2013.

GENESEO EAGLE SCOUT BRINGS CREMATION PLOTS TO CEMETERY

Zack Anderson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Geneseo Central School and a member of Troop 4070, created a memorial garden for cremation burials at Temple Hill Cemetery.

He envisioned a park-like setting with walkways and a sitting area with a bench. The entrance and walkways would be paved, with flowers and plantings accenting the entrance. Anderson’s proposed sketch of the project was unanimously supported by the cemetery’s board and approval was granted to begin.

Anderson, along with fellow Scouts and friends, started the project August 11. They had three days to excavate a 344-square-foot-area to a depth of 4 feet. It was a difficult dig due to roots and stones but thanks to all of his helpers the site was ready. One of the contractors at the site estimated a cost of $7,000 if the cemetery had contracted the work out to a landscape company.

Al’s Landscaping of Lakeville donated the Geo-fabric, bedding sand and equipment usage for the project, Northern Nurseries of Fairport and the Alliance Company, a Canadian-based manufacturer, donated a new Gater Base product, which eliminates the need for stone, and Techo Bloc of Pittsburgh donated the pavers.

Temple Hill Cemetery Superintendent Dick Gallivan praised Zach for his leadership in this project. He said that it would add about 70 cremation burial sites in a very attractive setting surrounded by flowers.  Also, it will provide a more inexpensive alternative than purchasing a full size plot for a cremation burial.

BARKER TRIO COMPLETES THREE SERVICE PROJECTS

Three scouts from Boy Scout Troop 26 of Barker — Jordan Bender, William DiLorenzo and Michael Schian —recently completed a series of Eagle Scout projects.

For Bender's project, he organized several work parties to clean out a section of woods behind the Countyline United Methodist Church. After the area was cleaned out, a memorial walkway was created. The walkway includes two garden benches for church members to use for an area of reflection and remembrance of loved ones.

DiLorenzo's Eagle Scout service project was to revitalize the 200-year-old Stewart Cemetery on Carmen Road in Middleport.The project included clearing brush and weeds, resurfacing most of the top ground of the cemetery, cleaning headstones and grave markers and repairing several broken headstones. Unrepairable headstones were placed on a bed of gravel at the grave site. A new cemetery sign and placement was also completed.

Schian's Eagle Scout service project was repurposing an old office building at the Lighthouse Christian Camp in Barker.The office building was used to create a covered pavilion space for parents to enjoy watching their children play near an outdoor play area.Office and camp equipment was removed and carried to another site on camp for future use. The building was completely gutted with walls, windows and the floor removed. The bottoms of the rotted posts were cut and the building was stabilized until the stone and new concrete floor was poured.

VANDERLAAN CAPTURES HISTORY OF GLENWOOD LAKE

Marc Vanderlaan’s Eagle Scout (Troop 35, Medina) project uncovered and memorialized the history of Glenwood Lake and Glenwood Lake Park in Medina. A detailed display on the development of Glenwood Lake is on display in a permanent installation at the park, courtesy of Marc and his fellow scouts. A popular site and a jewel of Orleans County, the boat launch, fishing and picnic areas receive heavy use.