Young men achieve highest scouting declaration

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The Valley Stream Boy Scouts Troop 109 gained two new Eagle Scouts last Saturday, as Daniel Bosko and Matthew Smart advanced to the highest rank in the organization.

“It’s really quite an experience,” said Troop Leader Ron Healey of the ceremony.

Bosko and Smart gave speeches, recited the 12 steps of scout law and received citations from local politicians. As part of the ceremony, the two also lit candles that represent the ideals of honor, courage and service, which they learned during their seven years in Boy Scouts. “As they earn all these different merit badges and learn all these different life lessons, they become mature adult future leaders of America,” Healey said.

Both Bosko and Smart decided to do their Eagle Scout projects in Valley Stream, where the troop is based.

For his project, Bosko, 18, of Valley Stream, re-painted the street numbers for 214 houses between East Maple and East Euclid streets last year. He said he decided on this project because his older brother, Anthony, started it for his Eagle Scout project two years prior and because “it’s a big help for the emergency services.”

The new street numbers are about five-inch black rectangles with white numbers stenciled on top of them. Bosko enlisted the aide of some younger scouts, and together they were able to complete the project in just one day.

Bosko is currently a freshman at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., where he is a music performance major and is in a five-year master’s degree program in education. He said that his experience organizing a jazz band for the Valley Stream Camporee when he was the senior patrol leader in 2015 helped inspire him to pursue a career in music education.

“To have a bunch of boys come together and teach them what I love to teach,” Bosko said, “it was a very powerful moment for me. It was through that sense of fulfillment that taught me what I want to do with my life.”

Bosko’s troop mate, Matthew Smart, also made Eagle last week, after painting 29 fire hydrants in the community in October 2016. Smart, 18, of Far Rockaway, Queens, said that the ceremony was a good way to end his seven years in Boy Scouts.

“It’s exciting and relieving that all the effort has been worth it,” Smart said. “I think just the joy of it will make me want to continue helping.”