Three Lacey Township Boy Scouts Earn Eagle Scout Rank

Three Lacey Township teenagers have attained the highest rank in Boy Scouting, becoming Eagle Scouts after completing projects focusing on New Jersey's natural resources.

Lacey Township High School Senior Keith Charette, Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Sciences (MATES) Senior Ryan Sullivan and Monsignor Donovan High School sophomore Joseph DeRado IV -- all of Lacey Boy Scout Troop 156 -- conducted their Eagle Scout projects in 2011 and will be honored with ceremonies awarding their medals this year.

"Eagle Scout is the pinnacle of scouting," said Joseph DeRado III, Troop 156 Scoutmaster. "It's a pretty big deal. If you look at some past Eagle Scouts, they're presidents and dignitaries, leaders who have spotlight-type roles as they grow older."

Charette held a cleanup at the Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education in Waretown last September, yielding more than three pick-up trucks worth of construction debris left illegally by contractors in front of the center. His team of 10 youths also reforested an old road with native oak and pine saplings, said DeRado.

The Center is owned by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife and is located on 194 acres of diverse coastal habitat adjacent to Barnegat Bay.

Sullivan's project also focused on the Lighthouse Center. In June, he and his team rebuilt several foot bridges along the center's bay trail that were destroyed by storms and widened and cleaned trails used for educational outreach programs highlighting Barnegat Bay's importance as a natural resource and how neglecting it could be catastrophic to our area, according to DeRado.

Charette and Sullivan were honored recently by the Division of Fish and Wildlife and the organization, Save Barnegat Bay, for their volunteer efforts to protect the bay.

Joseph DeRado IV's project gained national attention from Field & Stream magazine's Hero For a Day Program, being featured in the November issue and highlighted on its website at www.fieldandstream.com/hero-for-a-day/quail/video.

"I met the chairman of the New Jersey Quail Project in October 2010 and went on a quail hunt and found they've been on the decline," said DeRado. "I wanted to increase the habitat and make a positive impact for that particular species."

DeRado organized a habitat restoration day in April, in conjunction with the Division of Fish and Wildlife and the New Jersey Quail Project, at Peaslee Wildlife Management Area in Cumberland County. The group planted warm season grasses, girdled trees and created brush piles to protect the remaining Bowhite Quail population in the area. They also hung 10 bird boxes to assist the Red-headed Woodpeckers.

DeRado, who would like to be a forester one day, said becoming an Eagle Scout took a lot of work but he never got discouraged.

"Making Eagle Scout is a great experience," he said, encouraging other scouts to strive for that goal.  "Just keep working on merit badges, don't wait too long and make sure they have fun with what they're doing in scouting."

In 2010, 56,176 Scouts earned the rank of Eagle Scout. To earn the rank, a Boy Scout must: progress through the ranks in order; earn 21 merit badges; serve six months in a troop leadership position; plan, develop and give leadership to a service project; take part in a Scoutmaster conference; and successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review, according to the Boy Scouts of America website.

"Scouting is the best leadership development program in the country," said DeRado III. "Most people don't realize the value scouting gives to these
boys."