Boy Scout Troop 155, chartered by the West Freehold School PTO, Freehold Township, recognized its 2008 Eagle Scout recipients — Richard Cohen, Jonathan Di Bianca and Nicolas Montalto — at a recent Court of Honor ceremony.
According to the Boys Scouts of America, only about 5 percent of all Boy Scouts attain the rank of Eagle Scout. This represents more than 1.7 million Boy Scouts who have earned the rank since 1912.
To earn the Eagle Scout rank, the highest advancement rank in Scouting, a Boy Scout must fulfill requirements in the areas of leadership, service and outdoor skills. Merit badges signify the mastery of certain Scoutcraft skills, as well as helping boys increase their skill in an area of personal interest. Of the 120 merit badges available, 21 must be earned to qualify for Eagle Scout.
Richard Cohen, a senior at the Monmouth County Vocational School District’s Marine Academy of Science and Technology in Highlands, identified and organized the blacksmith tools at the historic Oakley farmhouse at the intersection of Wemrock Road and Oakley Drive in Freehold Township. The tools were organized and displayed on hooks with descriptions of each adjacent to the tool.
Jonathan Di Bianca, a senior at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, completed an environmental project that benefits the visitors of Durand Park in Freehold Township, as well as the surrounding community. He created a habitat for bats, allowing them to naturally control the harmful effects of the mosquito population and other nuisance insects. This eliminated the use of chemical pesticides. The project consisted of building three bat houses, with two roosting chambers in each, and installing them on 21-foot-tall galvanized steel poles that were cemented in the ground. They were placed at three strategic locations within the butterfly meadow in the 100-acre park.
Nicolas Montalto, a senior at the Freehold Regional High School District’s Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps at Colts Neck High School, constructed a nonworking replica well next to the one-room West Freehold School House on Wemrock Road in Freehold Township. Appropriate permits from Freehold Township were required. The iron ore stones that were used to build the well were from the original well that was located near Moore’s Tavern in Freehold Township.

