What does membership in Boy Scout Troop 3 do for young men?
Well, it gets them up early on a 35-degree morning, on a day when there is no school, to spend the day doing manual labor.
And and the Scouts are grateful for it.
“It teaches you life skills. Cooking, manual labor, you have to know how to do these things,” said Colby McLiverty, a 15-year-old Life Scout with Troop 3 in Derby.
Colby was one of about 15 Troop 3 scouts at the Ansonia-Derby Dog Park on Coon Hollow Road Friday morning as part of “Good Friday, Good Turn,” an annual community service project.
The scouts planted eight trees in the dog park between 8 and 8:45 a.m. Friday, with another two to go.
The Valley Boy Scouts are celebrating their 100th birthday this year, so their goal is to plant 100 trees throughout the lower Naugatuck Valley.
Another group of Troop 3 scouts was planting trees Friday along the Derby Greenway. Yet another group was working hard planting trees in Shelton. And future plantings will be happening in Ansonia, Oxford and Seymour.
Colby and his friend, 15-year-old Life Scout Adam Sroka, said Troop 3 has taught them everything from manners to the importance of hard work.
Colby’s a sophomore at Notre Dame in West Haven. Adam’s a freshman at Emmett O’Brien in Ansonia.
The two met when they were about 5 years old at a local tae kwon do class, but their friendship was forged through Troop 3. They’ve both been in the troop for about 10 years.
“The best friends that I have now — Colby, Anthony (Bartholomew) — I met them all through Scouts,” Adam said.
Troop 3 helped him gain a level of maturity he probably would not have had otherwise. Summer camps when he was younger taught him how to be away from mom and dad. Now they’ve traveled all over the U.S. with the Scouts.
“I really like all the places I’ve been,” Colby said. “I’ve been boating on the Florida Keys, I’ve been hiking from Los Angeles to Seattle.”
“We went to the National Scout Jamboree,” Adam said. “This year I’m going on a cross-country trip for three weeks. And next year we’re going to England. You get to go to so many different places.”
The Ansonia-Derby Dog Park’s ties with Troop 3 run deep. Scout Anthony Bartholomew helped build the equipment in the park as part of his Eagle Scout community service project. It’s become a popular place for dogs and their owners.
Anthony and his mom, Felicia Monaco, were on hand Friday morning as well.
Monaco said she was especially grateful to Derby Public Works Director Anthony DeFala and his crew for digging the holes where the trees are being planted.
“Within a few months there will be 100 trees in the Valley to commemorate 100 years of scouting,” she said.
