By Jesse Kucewicz, Contributing Writer
MARLBOROUGH – Boy Scout Troop 41 in Marlborough celebrated the achievement of ten of their newest Eagle Scouts in an Eagle Scout Court of Honor Ceremony, June 27.
The event took place at the Marlboro Fish and Game Association and marked the troop’s first such ceremony since 2019 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to delay their event for over a year.
This combined ceremony was one of Troop 41’s largest ever.
Two of the ten scouts, Zachary Ritter and Steven Chisholm, completed their requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout in late 2019. Five of the scouts — Dylan Green, Nicholas Battaglino, Trevor Johnson, Evan Ritter, and Austin Manning — completed their requirements in 2020. The remaining three scouts — Aidan Correll, Surya Ghai, and Codey Daly — finished their Eagle Projects earlier this year.
The rank of Eagle Scout is reached by just 8% of all Boy Scouts nationwide. Even so, Troop 41 has a strong history of members attaining this distinguished rank, having multiple members become Eagle Scouts in 17 of the last 18 years.
Tom Wissler is the Scoutmaster of Troop 41 and has been with many of these boys throughout their Scouting careers.
“I remember a lot of them from Cub Scouts,” Wissler said. “I’ve watched them grow throughout the years.”
“The amount of people that are here today is really great to see,” he added on the day of the ceremony. “This is why we volunteer, to see what happens when the kids grow up.”
While Scouts are often known for their ability to survive in the wild, each of the Eagle Scouts have also been taught about subjects such as personal finance, leadership, and politics.
“It’s not just camping and fishing and canoeing, that’s not what this is about,” Wissler said. “We’re teaching these boys to become young adults of society.”
“We’re teaching things that these boys will use for the rest of their lives,” he explained. “They have respect, they have honor, they have honesty taught, they have a lot of things that are not being taught all of the time.”
Photos/Jesse Kucewicz
