Mahopac Teen Achieves Boy Scouts Highest Rank
Mahopac resident Richard Hoover began his scouting career as a Tiger Cub in the first grade. Cut to12 years later and Hoover had stuck with it and was looking for that special community project through which he would achieve the highest rank in the Boy Scouts: Eagle Scout.
Ten years ago, Hoover’s family became parishioners at Grace Lutheran Church in Yorktown. Having seen the clutter and disorganization of the church’s attic, Hoover decided he would make renovations and construct storage cabinets so that everything would have its place.
“It was so disorganized, to the point that it could’ve been a fire hazard,” Hoover said, noting that boxes and materials blocked the walkway. “I wanted to reorganize the attic and make it useable again.”
He went to fellow parishioner Dan Hughes, who drew up a blueprint for how to build and install the storage units.
But Hoover would need close to $2,000 to purchase the wood and materials that would be needed to build them.
Totally exceeding his expectations, Hoover said he was able to fund the project solely through the generosity of the parishioners at the church by holding two bake sales, one of which fell on Mother’s Day 2011.
“Some people handed me a $20 bill and only took a cupcake,” Hoover said. “It really shows the goodness of people.”
The wood he purchased arrived in long, massive sheets. But instead of measuring and cutting the wood on the same work days the storage units were installed, Hoover worked with Hughes and another parishioner Art Schroeder to cut the side panels, the shelves and the tops and bottoms of all 30 units in the days prior so that it later could be put together like a jigsaw puzzle.
The day Hoover chose for his fellow scouts from Troop 217 Mahopac Falls, his friends and his family to come help him install the storage cabinets just happened to be the day last year when Snowtober hit the region.
“It was the day of that crazy snowstorm,” Hoover said. “At 4 p.m. we looked out and saw our cars were covered. We had some fun getting out of there.”
The unexpected snowstorm didn’t get in the way of the project going like clockwork, taking a total of 15 hours over the course of two work days.
“It was fun. But it also was very well-organized, very well-orchestrated and very well-executed,” said Hoover, who later presented Hughes with a mentor pin to recognize his guidance. “I had great support from my troop, as well as from my friends and family.”
The project complete, Hoover received his official rank of Eagle Scout during a ceremony at his church on May 12 that was attended by New York State Senator Greg Ball.
“It is a pleasure to be here today with Rich. There are only a small percent of scouts that ever make it to this ranking and I would like to congratulate Rich for all his hard work to achieve this great honor,” Senator Ball said. “Rich is a great leader that we can all be proud of. I look forward to great things from him in the future.”
Hoover said achieving his goal was meaningful to him on multiple levels and was a memory he would take with him as he graduates from Mahopac High School later this month and heads off to the University of Hartford in Connecticut next fall.
“The ceremony was great. It’s an honor to become an Eagle Scout. It shows I did something with life in high school. I made a difference,” Hoover said. “It was also reflective. There were younger scouts there. It was like a trip down ‘Memory Lane’.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
