Simsbury's Boy Scout Troop 175 Honors Four New Eagle Scouts

At a ceremony held at St. Mary’s Church on May 16, The Boy Scouts of America Troop 175 held a National Eagle Scout Court of Honor to welcome the troop’s four newest Eagle Scouts.

Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts of America. Requirements include earning at least 21 merit badges and demonstrating Scout Spirit through the living Boy Scout Oath and Law, community service, and leadership. This includes an extensive service project that the Scout plans, organizes, leads, and manages. Eagle Scouts are presented with a medal and a badge that visibly recognizes the accomplishments of the Scout.

The scouts earning this recognition were Michael Francis Duff, David Michael Kalamarides, Ryan Earl Weathers and William Christopher Kendall

Michael Duff

Michael was born in1996 and has lived his entire life in Simsbury, Connecticut.  As the third child born into a scouting family, becoming a scout was part of his destiny.  However, Michael was born with spina bifida and he faced many challenges in his life which helped him prepare for his time in scouting and his rise to Eagle rank.

His brother, Ryan  introduced Michael to scouting early on. He started his scouting career as a Tiger Scout with Pack 76 at Squadron Line School and earned my Arrow of Light. his love of camping started in Cub Scouts with his first campout. He joined Troop 175, the troop where is brother Ryan had been a scout and had also earned Eagle rank. It is a wonderful honor to be his legacy and follow in his footsteps.

Michael is currently a senior at Simsbury High School, where he has made honor roll “almost” every semester. One activity he recently joined and really values is Students of Faith at SHS. He has also been very active in Unified Theater for the past four years and the most recent two as a student leader. Michael also went with Unified Theater to Los Angles and San Diego where he met with other schools,  helped launch Unified Theater on the West Coast and attended a conference on inclusion. This summer he has earned an internship with Unified Theater.

Michael feels that he has had the opportunity with scouts to do many things he would never have thought possible. His most memorable trip was going for nine days to the National Jamboree last year in West Virginia. Just to be there and experience how the Boy Scouts feed, tent, and organize 30,000+ people all at one time was great. It was really interesting to meet experts on the National BSA who work to include all scouts. He also loved the trips the troop took to Gettysburg where history came alive. He also learned to enjoy wheel chair skiing on a scout trip. Michael enjoys following country music and hopes to go to Nashville someday.

For his Eagle Project, Michael built the benches and planters in front of St Mary’s Church, the sponsor of Troop 175. St. Mary Church community is important to Michael because it is where he has made all of his sacraments and earned the Ad Altare Dei Boy Scout religious emblem with the mentoring of Mr. and Mrs. Cady. He thought it would be nice to have a place for people to sit while they visited after church

Michael always dreamed about being an Eagle Scout, planned on it and wanted to earn it because his Dad and brother are Eagle Scouts. But as he worked at earning the rank, he really wasn’t sure being a kid in a wheelchair that he would ever really make it. But he did

Michael would like to thank many people for the help and support they provided during his time in scouting. Most importantly were his mother and father, Linda and Dennis Duff. He also thanks Scoutmaster Mead and all the Assistant Scout Masters of Troop 175 for all of their help and guidance.

This achievement was made possible because of the support of a wonderful family, community and my team of eleven physicians and surgeons. Special thanks to Dr. Thomson and Dr. McCarthy for working an amazing miracle by rebuilding Michael’s spine.

Michael will graduate from Simsbury High this June and go forward to serve others and pursue opportunities to work in disability awareness and inclusion.

David Kalamarides

David Kalamarides was born in Wilton, CT. and moved to Simsbury as a young boy. He joined Cub Scout Pack 174 at Latimer Lane School at age 7. There he progressed from a Tiger Cub up to a Webelos 2 and then Arrow of Light. He followed his older brother in joining Troop 175 in 2008. Two years later, he became a patrol leader. During the following summer, he had the opportunity to work as a Counselor in Training at the boy scount summer camp, Camp Mattatuck, and then as a full time Counselor the next year. David’s time working on the Mattatuck Scoutcraft Staff and then at Philmont were two of the best experiences of his early life.

David is currently a junior at Northwest Catholic where he participates in Cross Country, Track and

Field, and Lacrosse. He believes his experiences as a Boy Scout have shaped my life far beyond an hour every week and it has become apparent in my school, social, and work related exploits.

For his Eagle Project, Davis designed and constructed fences around the dumpsters behind St.

Mary’s Church. They served a dual purpose of keeping the trash from blowing down to Ironhorse

Boulevard and beautifying the previous unappealing dumpsters. David would like to thank his parents, Father Matera, and Bill Heiden for helping him organize and complete the project.

Will Kendall

Will was in Bristol, Connecticut and then moved with his family to Simsbury at age three. During first grade at Central School, he joined Pack 175 as a tiger cub with many of my fellow eagle scouts from his den. He passed through each rank until he crossed over to Troop 175.

Some of Will’s most memorable trips include many of the Onion Mountain Trips and the Iron Chef cook off where we thought up some crazy food menus, as well as built a large log cabin each year with a fire inside. Where at night the scouts all sat around and told stories and the one time when coyotes came down the mountain and were running all throughout our campsites while we were in our shelters.  Also, his trip to Philmont was one trip that I'll never forget.  In 10 days, the crew he was on hiked 65 miles and summated three mountains with some of my good scouting friends.  The views and many of the activities that they did were incredible to Will.   He will never easily forget them. Backpacking and carrying all of your stuff was hard but rewarding.  Walking down the mountain on the cutbacks and seeing the camp all green and not looking like a giant dirt pit, like it had when we started, was one of his favorite sights besides the time they woke up at 2am to climb to the highest ridge to watch the sunrise and eat our breakfast.

For his Eagle Scout project, Will made a large flight bird recovery cage for Roaring Brook Nature Center.  After meeting with the center a couple times, we developed the blue prints for the cage and with the help of Mr. Adamowicz, Will was able to build the cage indoors with a better structural design over 3 weeks, and in 3 sections, before moving it to the nature center on the 4th week using a box truck.  Then they attached the special mesh netting to the outside. We also threw together a latched door as a last minute request thanks to Mr. Adamowicz's help.

Will would especially like to thank Mr. Mead, Mr. Barch and Mr. Adamowicz who were of the greatest help to me during my final push towards attaining my Eagle rank and who have guided me over the years.

Ryan Weathers

Ryan was born in Columbus, Ohio and moved to Atlanta, Georgia as a baby. He then moved to Simsbury, Connecticut at the age of four and he joined Pack 175 in the first grade at Central School. Currently, Ryan is a senior at Simsbury High School, and is looking forward to attending college in the fall, studying computer science and gaming design.

Ryan’s most memorable trip is the one where he sustained an injury. The Saco River canoe trip on the border of Maine and New Hampshire was a great trip, but before it even started, he managed to sprain his ankle playing ultimate Frisbee. It still was a great trip for him.

Ryan’s Eagle Scout project involved repairing a steep part of the walking trail that goes all the way around Simsbury Farms so that it wouldn't be washed out after huge storms. His team of scouts dug trenches and put in a pipe system to divert the water away from the trail. Ryan wishes to thank Mr. Ron Bartgis of Finished Splinters for helping with the design and for donating the gravel that was used to fill in the deep water trenches and to Mr. Gerry Toner at Simsbury Farms for all his support during the project. He also wishes to thanks to all the scouts and parents who helped during my project and special thanks to Mr. Mead and Mr. Adamowicz for their help and support the entire time I’ve been in Boy Scouts. Finally Ryan thanks Chris Reilly for taking over his long-standing position as Quartermaster of the troop as well as helping him stay motivated throughout the journey towards the Eagle Scout rank.