Two BSA Troop 400 Scouts earn wings for work in garden
July 24, 2024 at 11:36 p.m.
For many members of the BSA, the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, becoming an Eagle Scout is a lifelong dream. It requires members to earn at least 21 merit badges, serve at least six months in a leadership position within the group, attend a Scoutmasters conference and take charge of a community service project—all before turning 18.
While less than 10% of Scouts achieve the rank every year, Port Chester Troop 400 recently saw two members flying to new heights with the status: Dominic Portillo and Trevor Sullivan.
Though they have yet to receive their new uniforms, they’re proud Eagle Scouts.
“Right now, I’m just waiting for the Court of Honor, where I’ll be ceremonially awarded our rank,” Portillo said. “But on paper, I’m an Eagle Scout.”
It’s a title they’ll keep for life, even though their time with BSA is formally over. But neither intends to turn his back on his fellow Scouts anytime soon.
Trevor Sullivan
While Sullivan had difficulty narrowing down what he wanted his service project to be, he knew what he wanted to focus on: gardening.
“My dad does it all the time,” he said. “We have three big planters at home, and I just ended up joining him.”
While many garden to produce fruits, vegetables or flowers, Sullivan primarily relishes the process of it.
“It’s just something that kind of helps me turn my brain off,” he said. “My dad buys seeds and, half the time, I don’t even know what they are. They grow and I’m surprised by whatever they actually end up being.”
Sullivan wanted to leverage his gardening experience to help a community but struggled to find a project that would let him do so.
“At first, I was really interested in doing something for one of the elementary schools,” the Glen Avenue resident said. “But it would have been a lot of paperwork and red tape to cut through.”
He, like Portillo, turned to his Scoutmaster, Moe Acevedo, for advice.
“Moe (Acevedo) mentioned Mr. Payan, specifically the Weber Community Garden, and that’s how I ended up here,” he explained.
After a brief inspection, Sullivan quickly ascertained how he could contribute to the space.
He said that one of the garden beds, identified as number 10, was in dire need of an update.
“You would have been able to pick up any part of its walls and it would’ve come apart,” the now 18-year-old said. “And the wood was beyond repair. The whole thing just needed to be replaced.”
Using his father’s garden as a template, he designed a new bed that would fit in the space.
“It’s similar in size to the others, but I kept all the support beams outside of the soil area so that people would be able to maximize the amount of gardening space they would have,” Sullivan said.
On Apr. 28, he led six scouts through the removal and installation of the beds.
“A big part of the Eagle Scout project is that leadership aspect and, at first, it didn’t really sit well with me,” Sullivan recalled.
“It was difficult to explain what I envisioned to them at first. It was all so clear in my head. and I had to figure out how to vocalize it,” he laughed.
To prepare, he wrote out a flow chart of responses to questions he expected—though he quickly learned he had to think on his feet.
“It ended up not really helping,” Sullivan laughed. “It was like I thought I was ready for anything, but I wasn’t.” He ultimately settled into the leadership role shortly after starting when he realized he needed to embrace that things don’t always go according to plan.
“In the end, the experience built up my confidence,” he said. “It only took about six hours and I’m really proud of it.”
When Sullivan returned to the garden on Friday, July 19, to show off his work, he saw the bed in use for the first time.
“It’s amazing to see people actually using it,” he said, observing the bell peppers growing in. “It’s one thing to have this idea that someone will use it, but it’s another to see it.”
After his project was approved and his status as an Eagle Scout was confirmed, Sullivan felt relief.
“I was so stressed before my meeting with the board. I never thought that 10 years of Scouting would be determined to be worth something by seven random adults,” he recalled. “But I actually made it.”
Dominic Portillo
Portillo describes himself as a “lifer,” having been with the BSA since he was a 5-year-old Cub Scout.
“My mom kind of put me in it so I could try new things,” he explained.
While Portillo ultimately earned the highest rank attainable in the BSA, he never thought he’d stick with the organization for as long as he did.
“I’ll admit, there were times when I had my doubts as to whether I’d stick to it until the end,” he said. “But I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Scouts, and I gained so many experiences and skills over the years.”
Portillo has been a Scout for 13 years, but most of his career took place outside of Port Chester.
“I’m actually all the way from White Plains,” he said. “But in 2020, some members of Troop 2005 and I visited Troop 400 to see how they did things in Port Chester. And what we saw is that it was just so much more efficient. They got a lot more work done.”
He transferred to Troop 400 and continued down his path towards becoming an Eagle Scout. However, Portillo had difficulty landing on a service project idea.
“I was bouncing a lot of ideas around, but I wasn’t confident enough in any to lock into any,” he said. “You can’t do something that just benefits the Scouts, and it was difficult for me to settle on what to do.”
With his June 7 birthday rapidly approaching as the calendar rolled into May, his Scoutmaster guided him towards someone who was looking for a helping hand—Alex Payan.
The founder of the Port Chester Community Gardens, a nonprofit organization that operates several gardens across the Village, told Portillo that one of their plots needed a new shed at the Weber Drive green space. The now 18-year-old was, admittedly, apprehensive about the project, but he committed to it.
“Honestly, I ended up really enjoying it,” Portillo said.
He explained that he first inspected the old shed.
“It was pretty similar to what we replaced it with, but a little less wide and deep,” he said. “And it was just placed on the ground, so it could slide around in the rain, which was inconvenient.”
In the early days of planning the project, Portillo was prepared to build a shed, but he was told Payan had already purchased a replacement.
“That made things a lot simpler,” he laughed. So, he shifted his focus to designing a base for the new shed to stand on and guided his father through building it. “We used wood that he got from his factory job, so the whole thing ended up being incredibly inexpensive,” he said.
Portillo directed a small group of Scouts in dismantling the old shed, placing the new wooden base and assembling the replacement structure. While sure they’d be able to finish within several hours, he was less confident in his ability to lead them through it.
“I was really worried that coordinating the Scouts through what I wanted to do would be very difficult,” he said. “I just needed to learn how to believe in myself when it comes to leadership roles.”
Once the project was complete, Portillo’s Eagle Scout promotion was in the hands of the review board. While many would find that difficult to come to terms with, it was something he accepted quickly.
“Getting reviewed wasn’t stressful for me at all,” he said. “At that point, it was out of my control, but I was already proud of what I did.”
He was approved by the board on June 24 and earned his title of Eagle Scout.
“I was honestly shocked,” he laughed. “I spent so long thinking I would never actually achieve it because it just seemed so difficult. But I did it.”
Scouts no more, but sticking around
With their days as Scouts behind them, Portillo and Sullivan are looking forward to the next phase of their lives: college.
Portillo will be attending Westchester Community College, with the intention of transferring to the Stevens Institute of Technology to study engineering. Sullivan will be moving to Pennsylvania to start at Drexel University with a major in computer science.
While both are focused on their academic careers, they intend to visit Troop 400 frequently to act as mentors.
Portillo said he’s already taken a group of Scouts under his wing.
“I’ve got some younger cousins who just started out as Cub Scouts,” he said. “So being an Eagle Scout has given me confidence to step in and actively start teaching and guiding them.”
He said the motivation to do so stemmed from how he was treated in his early days.
“I’m pretty sure I was only able to do this through the support I received from the rest of Troop 400,” Portillo said. “The troop leaders and my fellow Scouts were always there to give me help when I needed it, so I need to be willing to do the same.”
Sullivan was already gearing up to volunteer with his now ex-troop.
“All the guys from my troop are actually at a summer camp Upstate right now,” he said. “But I already told Moe (Acevedo) that I’ll be helping out when they get back.”
“They’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Sullivan said. “I’ll be popping my head into meetings here for a while.”
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