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Mostly Cloudy Valley Stream Boy Scouts serve their community
Boys Scouts have been serving their community for decades, with a lot of their work visible in Valley Stream and beyond.
Recent times have been no different, and a trio of local scouts recently wrapped up their community service projects, a requirement to become an Eagle Scout. The Eagle rank is an honor attained by only 5 percent of boys who enter the scouts.
David Glaittli, Frankie Rossetti and Steven Santiago are hoping to join that elite group of scouts. Glaittli built bat houses for Valley Stream, Rossetti constructed a horseshoe court for members of the Malverne American Legion, and Santiago made test dividers for science classrooms at Memorial Junior High.
On May 10, more than 20 volunteers gathered at Glaittli’s house to construct 14 bat houses which will be installed at various village parks. He supervised his fellow scouts from Troop 116 in cutting, sanding, assembling and painting the wood.
Richard DeAngelis, the deputy village clerk, brought the idea to one of the scout leaders, who then suggested it to Glaittli as an Eagle project. DeAngelis said that bats, which are already in Valley Stream, eat about 500 bugs a night and can help control the mosquito population. Bats are a natural way to control mosquitoes, which can carry the West Nile Virus.
DeAngelis met with Glaittli last week to decide where to place the boxes, which will go mostly at Edward W. Cahill and Hendrickson parks, which have large bodies of water. Village crews will hang the boxes, which DeAngelis said will be mostly out of sight.
Glaittli, 16, a junior at Valley Stream North High School, said he has been planning the project since December. Before becoming and Eagle Scout, he must earn two more merit badges, complete some paperwork and appear before a Board of Review. “Not that many people are Eagle Scouts,” he said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted, ever since I joined the Cub Scouts.”
Also on May 10, Rossetti and fellow scouts from Troop 109 went to Malverne American Legion Post 44 on Franklin Avenue to build a horseshoe court for veterans and repaint a sign. He supervised about 20 people.
Rossetti, 14, a ninth-grader at North High, said that members of the post were interested in having a horseshoe court built, so he obliged. The first step was looking online and finding how to make one. He and his volunteers constructed a platform, placed it in the ground, then installed a backboard.
“I learned that building a horseshoe court is not as simple as it sounds,” he said. “There’s a lot more detail to it than most would think.”
He added that he hopes the veterans will enjoy it for years to come. With the construction now complete, Rossetti has a few more steps left before he can become an Eagle Scout. He hopes to have a Court of Honor ceremony later this year with his older brother, Nicholas, who last year performed restoration work at a museum in Rockville Centre.
Santiago is striving to become the third Eagle Scout in his family, as his two older brothers already attained the rank. He is a member of Troop 336 based in Lynbrook, and an eighth-grader at North High.
His mother, Elsie, is a science teacher at Memorial. Santiago made test dividers for four classrooms because science rooms there have tables for two students, instead of individual desks. The old dividers were old and rotting, he said, and had been written on extensively.
He and his father, a contractor, came up with a design, then fellow scouts came to his house to build the dividers. Work included cutting and sanding the wood, putting two pieces together, and staining. Stickers were also put on each divider indicating the room number. He built a total of 60 — 15 for each classroom.
“It feels great to have it done,” he said. “It was a lot of work. It definitely improved my leadership skills.”
Santiago has already earned 50 merit badges, far beyond the 21 required to become an Eagle Scout, and he is looking to break his troop’s individual record of 66. At 14, he would become one of the younger scouts to earn the rank.
His mother said that NEFCU provided a grant to the school for the new dividers, so she asked her son if he would take on the work, as he was in search of a project. A teacher at Memorial since 2006, she said she is proud of her son’s work and hopes to get a lot of years out of the new test dividers.
Santiago said he is hoping to have a Court of Honor ceremony in September. After that, he would like to earn Eagle Palms, additional honors for earning merit badges once a scout earns the Eagle rank.
