Seaford Scout reaches new heights

Boy Scouts has been a big part of Kyle Gilbert’s life for the better part of a decade. The 18-year-old Seaford resident and member of Troop 581 had two big accomplishments in the span of two days — he graduated Seaford High School on June 27, and the following day he was honored for becoming an Eagle Scout.

Gilbert earned the Eagle rank, Scouting’s highest honor, earlier this year. About 50 family members, friends, fellow scouts and elected officials joined him to celebrate that accomplishment at a Court of Honor ceremony at Seaford United Methodist Church. “It was really nice,” he said. “It’s a really, really happy experience.”

It was that church where Gilbert completed his required community service project. He restored the playground, which is used by the Seaford Community Pre-school. The work included sanding down the wood to prevent children from getting splinters, cleaning the plastic, painting, and new chains for the swings.

The project, completed last fall, took two days to complete. He had the help of several volunteers. Before Gilbert could begin work, he had to seek donations, and was able to get supplies from Home Depot and Walmart.

If it were not for Gilbert’s project, the playground likely would not have passed state inspection, leaving children at the church and pre-school without a place to play.

Gilbert earned 28 merit badges, well beyond the 21 that are required to become an Eagle Scout. His favorite was the computer badge, as he has worked with computers almost his entire life.

He will attend Nassau Community College in the fall, and plans to study computer information systems. Gilbert would like to go into software development or computer security. At Seaford High School, he was in the computer club.

Despite his love of computers, Gilbert could easily spend days without them when he would go on his camping trips with the Scouts. “If I could live outdoors forever, I probably would,” he said. “It’s very peaceful.”

He has attended weeklong summer camps upstate at the Onteora Scouting Reservation and at Camp Yawgoog in Rhode Island. He would participate in activities such as swimming, shooting and archery.

Gilbert said that scouting gave him experiences he would not have had any place else.

Becoming an Eagle Scout was a long-time goal for Gilbert, who entered the Scouts when he was 9. “I knew how much they were honored,” he said. “I knew they were leaders and I want to be a leader.”

Gilbert said he could not have done it without support from his family. His advice to anyone aspiring to become an Eagle Scout is to never give up.

“It was worth it, just the fact that I got all the knowledge out of it,” he said of his Scouting career and journey to Eagle Scout. “I’m a better leader and a better person because of it.”