Did you know?
Arthur Rose Eldred was the first Eagle Scout.
Gerald R. Ford is the only U.S. President who was an Eagle Scout.
More than 2 million Scouts — some 2 percent — have earned the rank.
At least 40 astronauts earned the rank, including Neil A. Armstrong.
MIDDLETOWN — Nearly 40 years ago, volunteers from the Sons of Italy built bleachers for the Fenwick junior varsity football field at what is now John XXIII Elementary School.
Mike Castellano was one of those welders who worked through cold winter nights to get the structure ready to open in 1971.
That legacy, that love of community, continues today through Castellano’s great-nephew Ricky Pearce, a junior at Fenwick High.
As his Eagle Scout project, Ricky has remodeled and updated the bleachers of the facility that recently was renamed in honor of Ed Dobrozsi, a Middletown insurance salesman and former athletic director and longtime voluneer at John XXIII.
“I’m glad it’s done,” Ricky said of the bleacher’s upgrade. “They look much nicer, and they’re safer for the fans, especially the kids and the older people.”
Ricky, 16, is a member of local Troop 20, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. He started his project in July and completed it in 28 days, on time and under budget. He was in charge of directing the work, but received significant assistance from his friends, family, other Scouts and the Fenwick community. Ricky also solicited parents of John XXIII students and Holy Family Parish members for donations, collecting the needed $3,300.
Ricky and his team painted sections of the bleachers gold and added kick boards, flooring, railing and nonslip step pads.
As his father, Rick Pearce said, the project was “quite an undertaking.” The elder Pearce said he never earned his Eagle, the highest honor bestowed on a Scout.
“To truly appreciate the stands, you’d have to see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures,” his mother, Saundra Pearce, said. “He did a great job, and he truly learned.”
Ricky Pearce can’t celebrate too much yet, however. He still has to earn six merit badges — probably a one-year task — to attain the Eagle Scout rank before his 18th birthday.
Until then, Saundra Pearce will embrace her son’s recent accomplishment. She attended John XXIII. Her children went there. And now the place is better because of Ricky’s efforts.
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