BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — For East Brunswick’s David Thorne, providing the borough with a needed service should land him a lofty perch shortly.
The 17-year-old has spent the past couple of months scraping and repainting the exterior of the Old Franklin School building on Middlesex Avenue as part of a community service project that he hopes will attain him the rank of Eagle Scout.
While millions of youths participate in the Boy Scouts, only 4 percent ever attain the Eagle rank, according to the Boy Scouts of America Web site.
It’s a pretty exclusive club. Famous Eagle Scouts include NBA Hall of Famer and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, former President Gerald Ford and current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Now, Thorne is poised to clear his last hurdle. He will submit a final report on his project shortly and undergo a review by a regional board.
Thorne’s family has roots in Metuchen. His grandfather used to live in town and his father, Rick, a contractor, has his office in town.
The decision to work at the Old Franklin School came after a previously planned project to do repairs on an Edison building fell through.
The Metuchen school was built in 1807 by local farmers on land donated by residents.
It sits on the National Historic Register and is believed by some to be the oldest schoolhouse in Middlesex County.
It currently serves as the headquarters for the Borough Improvement League.
Thorne said his father had been hired to repaint the building and renovate the foundation four or five years ago, and suggested he give the place a new coat.
It turned out to be much harder and more time-consuming work than one might expect.
For one, just prepping the building for painting was labor intensive.
“I was here scraping [off the old paint] weekends and almost every day after school from August to mid-October,” Thorne said.
Then there was the issue of the building’s age and significance, making the scraping a process that had to be done with caution.
“I had to make sure not to damage the building,” Thorne said. “In some places I got right down to some of the original wood and paint.”
He wasn’t alone the whole time though. Friends and family popped in to help along the way. A group was on hand for the final painting Oct. 23.
Phyllis Boeddinghaus, of the Borough Improvement League, said Thorne’s efforts were much appreciated.
“You know, it takes us about $12,000 a year to maintain the building,” she said. “He did a good job and I’m very pleased.”
On a brisk morning last week he was back one final time to clean the paint marks off the exterior windows.
Erich Woithe, a groundskeeper for the Masonic Temple property on which the schoolhouse sits, stopped by to open up the basement and show the work Thorne’s father did years ago.
Large metal braces supplement and support the original wooden beams, one of which is nothing more than a thick tree trunk with the branches cut off.
Thorne said the process leading up to attaining the Eagle Scout rank is an arduous one.
“It’s very hard,” he said. “There are a lot of requirements, and you have to earn a lot of badges.”
The Boy Scouts of America’s guidelines indicate no less than 21 badges must be earned in a variety of fields.
Eagle candidates must also gather recommendations from persons indicating that they have lived and acted in accordance with Scouting’s main principles: citizenship training, character development and personal fitness.
The community service project is his final step, but it’s not an easy one.
“You have to write up a project and get it approved, and it’s extremely difficult to get one approved by the [regional] council,” Thorne said.
Next up for Thorne is college. He said his religion will play “a big part” in choosing a school.
His top choices include Utah’s Brigham Young and Southern Virginia University.
Thorne said he wants to major in entertainment marketing, but would also like to go through a police academy program. “Just to keep my options open.”
And community service will continue to be a big part of Thorne’s life, as a Scout and as a person of faith.
“I’m Mormon, and my religion requires a two-year mission,” he said, which will be served in the middle of his college tenure. “For me, college won’t be the usual four-year stint.”