David Kilby

By: centraljersey.com
CRANBURY – As the township continues to deal with big projects, the Boy Scouts in town are doing their part by performing projects of their own all around town.
At the Township Committee meeting Monday, Boy Scouts Josh Diamond and Patrick Sockler presented their Eagle Scout projects to the committee and received the go-ahead to take the next steps.
Josh, 15, plans to reorganize a small storage room in the Cranbury police station, and Patrick, 13, plans to improve the West property by marking indigenous trees and clearing out weeds.
It’s also likely each Boy Scout will help the other out in his project.
As Josh gave his presentation for the project to the committee, Sgt. Rian Dworzanski explained how Josh reached out to the Police Department.
Sgt. Rian Dworzanski said Josh came to the police station, saying he really wanted to focus his Eagle Scout project on helping the Police Department.
The police pointed out the disorganized storage room, and Josh, with his father, considered it worthwhile to build shelves, coat racks and storage compartments for the room.
"We’re ready to go forward, pretty anxious about it," Sgt. Dworzanski said. "We’ll call it our patrol ready area. It’ll clear up some hallways. It’ll be better organized than what we have now."
He said the project will be done by three or four boys, supervised, over four-hour shifts during the weekend.
Josh’s father, Doug Diamond, said over the years, Boy Scouts have disciplined his son and helped his son gain confidence. He believes this project will be constructive to Josh’s character and leadership skills.
"It’s a team-building thing," Mr. Diamond said. "He’s going to work with others, but he’ll manage the project."
Patrick might help Josh with his project, and he also plans to improve the West property.
He will identify and mark at least eight different indigenous trees on the property and eradicate the multiflora rose weeds filling the area.
He will put the names of the eight indigenous trees on two kiosks he will build at the front of the property as well.
His project complements the project of his brother, Peter Sockler, who cleared out the weeds at the Cranbury Preserve part of the West property and placed a bench on the property dedicated to the memory of Helene Cody.
A number of projects have been done for the Helene Cody Foundation by Scouts in memory of Helene. Helene died of a brain aneurysm in 2008 at age 16. She was a Girl Scout, a cross-country runner and a volunteer for a number of charities.
Following her legacy, Scouts have organized a 5K run and designed Hermes-shaped ornaments engraved with "community, compassion and caring," the slogan of the Helene Cody Foundation.