First R.B. Scout earns her wings
December 19, 2024 at 2:31 a.m.
Audrey Sweeney still remembers what drew her to becoming a Scout.
“I was in the third grade and I got a flyer for the Cub Scouts,” she said, while describing the outdoor activities the pamphlet described. “And it all just seemed like something I wanted to do.”
She joined Rye Brook’s Cub Scout Pack 3, and when it came time to move up the ranks in 2021, she became a member of the newly-formed Troop 420—the first all-girls BSA Troop in the area.
“I had no real reason to stop, so I just kept going,” Sweeney said. “Plus, the second wave to join was mostly made up of my friends, so we all joined together.”
Dona Ortiz, the troop’s Scoutmaster, described the girls of Troop 420 as trailblazers.
“This group is historic in everything they do,” she said. “No matter what it is, the girls are making history. We produced our first female Eagle Scout last month and now we have our first from Rye Brook.”
Sweeney got there ahead of schedule, completing her Board of Review on Dec. 10, a week before her 14th birthday. Scouts have until they’re 18 years old to attain the Eagle Scout rank.
It’s a path that takes time to complete, but Sweeney said she wanted to make it happen as quickly as possible.
“I knew I wanted to get it done fast because I knew that high school would be a lot of work,” the Blind Brook High School freshman said. “I didn’t want to have too much to do and have it impact my grades, so that really drove me to get it done as quickly as possible.”
She spent weekends with her mother Lindsay St. Lawrence, who currently serves as the group’s assistant scout leader, creating a blueprint of what badges would provide the smoothest path towards earning her wings.
Her initial plan for a cumulating Eagle Scout project included building a dog park for her community, though it was an idea she had to adjust after meeting with Rye Brook Village officials.
“I talked to someone at Village Hall and they said they weren’t really sure if they were going to do something similar and had a specific place planned out for that already,” Sweeney said. “But they pointed me in the direction of the Humane Society of Westchester, so I reached out to them.”
After traveling to their office in New Rochelle, the Churchill Road resident saw firsthand the number of supplies needed to properly house animals in the pet adoption center and decided she wanted to ease that burden.
So, she opted to organize a supply drive, but needed to find a host.
Troop 420 Scoutmaster Dona Ortiz (left), Hunter Genovese, Audrey Sweeney, Ariana Ayala, Aarya Biswas and Chris Genovese serve as volunteers for Sweeney’s Eagle Scout Project, a pet supply drive at the Pet Pantry Warehouse in Rye.Lindsay St. Lawrence
Her first attempts were local supermarkets, but the process was hampered by corporate interference.
“She was told to fill out forms online that would either go unread or be told that they couldn’t do it. Though some gave her a gift card to use as a donation,” St. Lawrence recalled. “So, she had to shift away from her plan again.”
Sweeney concluded that the best place to find the requested products was where they were most abundant: a pet supply store.
She reached out to the Pet Pantry Warehouse in Rye, where the managers quickly agreed.
The two-day drive was scheduled for Oct. 12 and 20, but Sweeney felt she could collect more supplies if she broadened her horizons.
“There was a poster drawn up that I got them to put in their store window and I set up a box at the front of my school so when people walked in, they could donate what they could,” she said.
She laughed when she explained that the only thing Blind Brook High School Principal Mark Greenwald requested of her was a reminder before she actually set up the donation area.
When the dates of the in-person drive arrived, Sweeney was joined by several Troop 420 members, who solicited and collected donations.
“I think it went really well. We had things waiting for us that people had asked the store to set aside because they saw our poster,” Sweeney said.
By the end of the drive, her troop collected 375 pounds of supplies and $550 in monetary donations.
Sweeney used the money to purchase items from the Humane Society’s Amazon wish list to ensure that the group received at least some of all the supplies they were requesting.
Immediately afterward, she set her sights on her Board of Review.
“Me and my mom looked up common questions and I made sure that I knew all of the answers,” she laughed. “I was really nervous about making a good impression that day.”
But the studying paid off. She walked out confident that she had done well.
Now a full-fledged Eagle Scout, Sweeney has no intention of leaving the Scouts, though she’s not sure what role she will play in Troop 420.
“I don’t really know how much work I’ll have in the future, but I still want to be here,” she said. “But some of the other members have already been asking me about getting to Life Scout or specific badges. It feels good to be able to help them out and give advice now.”
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