Four new Troop 214 Eagle Scouts are ‘prepared for life’

Four members of Boy Scout Troop 214 in Rockville Centre have worked tirelessly this year to join the 4 percent of Boy Scouts in the nation to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout.

The achievements of Owen Ferreira, Max Fuentes, Timothy Reinholdt, and Kieran Woram were recognized during an Eagle Scout Court of Honor ceremony on Sunday at the Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth.

To become Eagle Scouts, they were required to earn a minimum of 21 merit badges, while planning, budgeting, coordinating, and completing a project that benefited the community, using only donated materials.

“An Eagle Scout, by the program’s definition, means prepared for life,” BSA Troop 214 Scoutmaster Carmine Giangregorio said. “Persistence and determination — that’s what sets an Eagle apart. Having a goal and completing it through all types of distractions. Persistence to work your way through the ranks from Scout to life and the determination to earn the merit badges that sometimes may not always be the most fun, but which you wear proudly across your chests. That’s what makes an Eagle Scout unique.”

Ferreira is a sophomore at the University of Alabama, where he is studying engineering with a focus on cybersecurity. He’s also a South Side High School alum and a recipient of the 2018 Scout of the Year Award. 

For his Eagle Scout project, Ferreira reached out to Covert Elementary School Principal Darren Raymar about creating a “Friendship Bench,” which was designed to help reduce social isolation following the pandemic by providing children with a space where they can speak openly with each other.

In addition to constructing the bench, he provided teachers and the Rockville Centre Public Library with educational materials about the project, so that they could continue to inform students about the purpose of the bench.

Fuentes, a freshman at SUNY Oneonta majoring in adolescent education in Earth science, was recently inducted into the Robert Noyce Scholars Program.

He first joined the scouts in 2011 as a Tiger cub with Rockville Centre Pack 31, during which he first learned the importance of following directions — a skill that would help him to hold several leadership positions. He later went on to receive the 2018 Scout of the Year Award and the 50th Anniversary Environmental Protection Award.

His project focused on revitalizing the garden near the entrance to the Center for Science, Teaching, and Learning at the Tanglewood Preserve. Due to donations from the Atlantic Nursery and Home Depot, he was able to transform the area into a native species garden, with the goal of serving the surrounding community.

Reinholdt, a freshman at Lafayette College majoring in biology, began scouting in 2013 as a Webelo with Rockville Centre Pack 31, and two years later, he joined Troop 214. He has earned 40 merit badges and explored a variety of different interests, finding his favorites to be chemistry, kayaking, and rifle shooting.

For his Eagle Scout project, Reinholdt wanted to give back to Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth and focused on creating a Belgian Block lining for the temple’s driveway entrance. He also helped to revitalize the Levy Garden.

Woram, a South Side High School senior, will attend Nassau Community College in the fall and then plans to transfer to Hofstra University for accounting.

He joined RVC Pack 31 in 2010 and quickly worked his way through the ranks to earn his Arrow of Light. Following in his older brother’s footsteps, he joined Troop 214, where he earned several merit badges, attended STEM camps, and participated in community service. He was also given an opportunity to meet with scouts from all across the globe during the World Scout Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Virginia in 2019.

For his Eagle Scout project, Woram wanted to provide elementary school students with tools to help them excel.

“My project focused on helping kids with ADHD,” Woram said.

After securing the RVC School District as a beneficiary, Woram said he worked with Jeannine Love, assistant superintendent for special education and pupil personnel services, to compile a list of items they would need before obtaining donations from Home Depot, Grainger, and Ace Hardware.

“We are so grateful for all the hard work Kieran has put into his Eagle Scout project,” Love said in a statement. “Thanks to his hard work and dedication the students in the elementary schools have access to more therapy tools that will help calm nerves, relieve stress, and serve as a distraction in an over-stimulating environment.”

He began working on his project in the spring and thanks to the help of his family and troop members, they were able to complete the construction of the boxes within a day. The boxes were then filled with sand so the kids were able to dig up their own fossils.

With the help of school administrators, he distributed these boxes to the district’s elementary schools. And, with an additional monetary donation from his grandparents in North Carolina, he purchased fidget toys for each of the elementary schools’ resource rooms.

During the Court of Honor ceremony, the four new Eagle Scouts were presented with a citation and special challenge coins from BSA leaders, elected officials, the American Legion, and other representatives from the local fire and police departments.

“There is such happiness in my heart to watch all these young men, specifically today, become Eagles,” Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray said. “It’s unbelievable. These are young men with a great commitment to excellence and I want to congratulate you today for exactly that.”

Murray presented all four scouts with proclamations recognizing their accomplishments. He was joined by Hempstead Town Clerk Kate Murray and newly-elected Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, who arrived only hours after having taken his oath of office in Washington D.C.

“When you open up the newspaper, you watch TV, or you turn on social media, it seems like the world focuses on everything bad that the youth are doing across our nation, and I wish that they all had a view into this room to see how much good is being done by you,” D’Esposito told the four Eagle Scouts.