Boy Scouts of America Troop 86 Eagle Honor for Eric Schmalzried

The Boy Scouts of America Troop 86 of Monmouth County bestowed its highest honor of
the rank of Eagle to Eric Schmalzried on January 6, 2019. Eric is Troop 86's 98th Eagle Scout.
Scoutmaster, Michael Decarlo and Assistant Scoutmaster, Karen Bentivenga states, "Eric
has always been a very enthusiastic scout who embodies the scout law with big and kind heart.
He always enjoyed teaching and helping the younger scouts. He was very proud to serve as
the senior patrol leader of Troop 86."
Eric is a bright and responsible young man, a graduate of Marlboro High School,
currently attending Rowan University pursuing Mechanical Engineering and minoring in
Computer Science. At Rowan he was elected into the Residence Hall Association (RHA), is also an
active member of Institutes of Electrical, Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the Robotic Automation Society (RAS). Eric is very passionate about his field of study; Robotics and Boys Scout. And this is very apparent because when he talks about it, his eyes light up and the energy is very palpable. Actually, it was Boys Scout that guided and helped him discover his passion. He states, "It was during BSA Jamboree February 2014, doing requirements for the Robotics merit badge, that sparked my love for robotics." He goes on to state,"Engineering and Robotics is a field where you create something, something physical that did not exist before, you made it come to being and that concept is so fascinating and exciting." Eric has been in the BSA since first grade (Tiger Den). He joined because of his father Terry and older brother Alex who are also Eagle Scouts (his younger brother Ben is currently working on his Eagle). However, he stayed in BSA because of friends he made and the fun he was having. And this fun has lead him to become a counselor for BSA summer camp at Aquehonga. He further states, "I have learned so much from Boys Scout like leadership skills, time management and working under pressure, skills that I continue to use everyday. Another important skill I acquired from BSA is how to be unplugged and be entertained while being unplugged, this is so vital for young kids in this age of electronics ", he proclaims proudly.
Eric's sense of community service is very strong which was nurtured at Troop 86 and is what lead him to his Eagle project. "Giving back is not an conscious effort, I do it unconsciously simply because its fun. This is what I learned at Troop 86; giving back is fun." Eric emphasized. He wanted to help out his family church, Lincroft Presbyterian Church on Everett Road. The church is very important part of his life and he has frequently lend his services to the church. Eric states, "my church is a place that has memorable value to me." His project was to build an elevated garden that would be 6 feet by 13 feet at the entrance sign to help beautify the church. Eric and volunteers helped clear out old bushes, plants and the foundation of gravel first. Then they leveled the land, place border bricks, six levels of mulch and the plants. The project took 3 days to complete with the help of dozen volunteers each day. The project also included written requests, presentation of the plan, fund raising, planning, scheduling and organizing the volunteers. All this was meticulously and diligently planned by Eric. Some supplies were donated by the church and rest were bought at a local hardware store. The challenges encountered during the project were beating the heat of the summer, and effectively managing supplies and the volunteers. He tackled the challenges by providing plenty of cold refreshments, rotating volunteers and keeping a good inventory of supplies.
Eric speaks very fondly of his experience in Troop 86. He states, "time management and learning to deal with failures are the most important things I have learned from Troop 86. Scouts make great engineers because they are taught how to learn from their failures making them good problem solvers.” “It also gave me chance to explore and do things that I normally would not. It truly prepared me for college, engineering and life. In college I can easily tell who is a Boys Scout
and who isn't" proclaims Eric.
By Kunjan Bhatt