Scouts give historic house a fresh look

Nicholas Rossetti has seen many of his fellow Boy Scouts earn their Eagle ranks over the past few years. Watching these older scouts successfully attain the highest honor in scouting inspired him to do the same.

Rossetti hasn’t earned the honor yet, but he is one step closer with the completion of his required community service project. The 16-year-old Life Scout from Valley Stream Troop 109 helped spruce up the Phillips House Museum in Rockville Centre.

On Oct. 20, Rossetti and about 10 other scouts, plus a half-dozen troop leaders, gathers at the historic home on Hempstead Avenue to fix up the front of the three-story building. They power-washed the home, and sanded and painted the porch, which had been worn down. It took about eight hours to complete the project.

Rossetti’s father is friends with Frank Seipp, president of the Board of Directors of Phillips House, and his grandfather also serves on the board. That is how Rossetti found out about the need, so when he ws searching for a project for his Eagle award, he knew where to turn.

Before he could start the work, he had to get donations from local businesses. He needed power-washing equipment and paint supplies. Several donations were provided by Aboff’s Paint and Home Depot.

“We made it look nicer,” Rossetti said, “and hopefully it will draw more people in to come in and look at the exhibits.”

The Phillips House Museum is an old sea captain’s house that was built in 1880 and restored. It has a lot of artifacts from the Victorian period, as well as historical information about Rockville Centre.

Seipp said several other scouts have done work at the museum as well, including fixing up the gardens, building a gazebo and creating an inventory of the more than 200 kitchen tools in its collection. “The Boy Scouts do some great projects for us,” he said. “They’re responsible kids, that’s the great part about it.”

As for the work of Rossetti and his volunteer, Seipp couldn’t be happier. “They did a fabulous job,” he said. “We’re really pleased. It looks great.”

Rossetti, 16, a junior at Valley Stream North High School, has been in the Cub Scouts since first grade. He started with the now-defunct Pack 74, before moving on to Troop 109.

Over the years, he has helped several other scouts with their Eagle projects, and was thankful that others returned the favor. “One person can’t do all the work,” he said, “so if you have a lot of hands, it makes the work a lot of easier.”

Rossetti has two more merit badges to earn before he will have completed all the requirements for Eagle Scout, a rank attained only by 4 percent of boys nationally who enter the scouts.

His younger brother, Frank, 14, also is in the troop and could be destined for Eagle Scout, too. Their father, Frank, is a past scoutmaster of Troop 109.

Rossetti said he hopes to have his Eagle Scout court of honor in the spring.