Troop 45 Boy Scout completes Eagle project for Town of Warwick

WARWICK — To achieve the Eagle Rank, Boy Scouts are required to complete a minimum of 21 Merit Badges, have leadership roles in and outside of the troop and participate in community service. Each candidate must also complete a major community service project as the last requirement.
On Thursday, Nov. 16, Troop 45 Boy Scout Alexander Brand presented his completed project - a dock and improved parking area at the Town of Warwick public boat launch on Wickham Lake - to Supervisor Michael Sweeton.
An affinity for the outdoors"Since an early age Alexander was always an avid outdoorsman," said his father and Troop 45 Scoutmaster Kevin Brand. "He constantly was outside exploring the environment and hunting for every known reptile in the area. His affinity for the outdoors naturally lead him to the Boy Scouts."
When the time came to choose an Eagle Scout project, the choice for Alexander Brand, a senior at Warwick Valley High School, was simple. Wickham Lake is within walking distance from his home and quite often he fished from the public boat launch.
An observationAnd through the years growing up he watched many a fisherman clumsily launch their boats without the aid of a dock and park their cars in an overgrown and neglected parking lot.
So with the assistance of his fellow Boy Scout Troop 45 members, parents and others from the community worked together to create a level parking lot with a fresh layer of stone and a safer way for fisherman to launch and enter their boats from a dock.
Brand has received numerous merit badges and he was the first in his Troop to be awarded the Paul Bunyan Woodsman award.
He is also a Certified Leave No Trace Behind Trainer as well as a certified life guard.
- Roger Gavan