Thursday, October 1, 2026
As Long Beach natives Alexis Ricoy and Scarlett Anderson rose through the ranks of Scouts BSA, they worked toward becoming Eagle Scouts — the highest honor in scouting. On May 30, the two friends achieved that goal together at a Court of Honor ceremony at St. Agnes Parish Center, in Rockville Centre.
The girls joined Troop 163G, in Rockville Centre, after its merger with Troop 215G in Long Beach. Each completed a community service project and fulfilled leadership, merit badge and service requirements to earn the Eagle rank.
Steve Bo, scoutmaster for Troop 163G, commended the girls efforts and noted their dedication to scouting.
“I have been working with both Alexis and Scarlett for years,” he said. “To see their progress pay off was special.”
Ricoy, 18, started her scouting journey with Troop 215G when she was 13, after she and her mother, Shannan Ricoy, helped establish the troop during the coronavirus pandemic. Serving as a senior patrol leader, Alexis played a key role in building the troop and guiding younger scouts.
Ricoy has volunteered at the Village Garden, in Atlantic Beach, since she was in middle school at Long Beach Catholic Regional School. She was introduced to the garden by a friend, and learned that it donates produce to the Long Beach Soup Kitchen.
Ricoy decided to use her Eagle Scout project to continue her work at the garden. She has an interest in addressing food insecurity, and constructed a vertical planting box — a ladder-like structure with shelves for plants — there.
“I already had the relationship with the people [at Village Garden], she said. “Knowing I was directly impacting someone in my community and the Atlantic Beach community made me really happy.”
Ricoy will graduate from Long Beach High School later this month and attend Hofstra University in the fall, where she plans to study business management and accounting.
Like her fellow troop member and friend, Anderson began her journey in Troop 215G before it merged with the Rockville Centre troop. She was an assistant senior patrol leader, and attributes her personal growth to her time as a scout.
“My mother noticed that there was a troop being started [in Long Beach], and said that it would be a great opportunity for me because I was an only child,” Anderson said. “I didn’t have a lot of friends. She thought it would be fun for me.”
Her family moved to Buffalo when she was 16, but Anderson, who will turn 19 on Father’s Day, stayed involved in scouting. She joined meetings on Zoom, and emailed Troop 215G frequently to stay informed.
Anderson recalled Girl Scout troops from across New York state playing gaga, completing merit badges and spending time outdoors, during gatherings at Onteora Scout Camp in the Catskills. Seeing gaga pits in Buffalo, she said, reminded her of her childhood.
“Gaga is a big scouting thing,” Anderson said. “It’s one of my favorite memories from when I was younger.”
Anderson’s passion for gaga became the inspiration for her Eagle Scout project: constructing a new gaga pit in a park in upstate Kenmore. Anderson recalled visiting the park with friends several times to play the game, but after harsh Buffalo winters damaged the pit, it became unusable and was demolished.
“I made sure when I built it to go out of my way to use a nice weatherproofing wood and really bolt it down nicely, so it can be accessible for a long time,” Anderson explained.
Now a sophomore nursing student at Niagara University, she said she was grateful to meet Ricoy and the other members of her troop, and added that she and Ricoy have remained close.
“The four of us would have pool parties, go to the beach, and do lots of volunteering,” Anderson said of the four scouts in the troop. “We all became close friends doing fun things together. It was like my second family.”
For Ricoy, being honored alongside her friend made the achievement even more meaningful. “Scouting brought us closer,” she said. “Earning our Eagle Scout was kind of emotional. We knew that we wanted to finish it out together and that we wanted to have our Court of Honor together.”
