Boy Scouts of America Troop 86 Eagle Court of Honor

Boy Scouts of America Troop 86 of Marlboro (affiliated with the Old Brick Reformed Church) is proud to announce the Eagle Court of Honor for their 113th Eagle Scout, Nihal Parekh. Nihal graduated from Marlboro High School in the Business Administration Magnet Program in 2022 and is currently attending Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business majoring in Finance. Nihal’s love and fascination for Boy Scouts started early, at the age of 11. His favorite parts of BSA are the fun, adventurous, and educational trips, friendships he has created, leadership-building opportunities, and service to others and his community. Nihal has thoroughly enjoyed all the BSA trips, he states, “I love the fact that you get to visit places and learn about the history of those places that you normally would not get the chance to visit or experience.” And he most values the beautiful friendships and bonds he has formed with his fellow peers that will endure time. These friendships have taught him an important lesson on how to work well with others who have different and unique personalities. Troop 86 has taught him a great deal about leadership. Nihal has held many leadership positions such as Webmaster (Managing and maintaining Troop 86 WebPage), Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, and Senior Patrol Leader, where he led the entire troop of over 60 Boy Scouts. These positions have taught him organization, delegation, and effective communication, more importantly, understanding others’ different styles of communication. He expressed, “my first time as an Assistant Senior Patrol Leader was when I truly learned critical leadership skills like leading by example and planning and preparation. These qualities are universally helpful, especially in helping me achieve my ambitions.” Along with attaining these desirable qualities, BSA also instilled a deep passion for community service.

Achieving Eagle rank is a highly coveted and respected rank, it demonstrates sheer dedication, hard work, and a certain amount of tenacity and grit. It exhibits high standards, only about 6 percent of all BSA members earn Eagle. An Eagle Scout exemplifies in all essential fields and yet maintains a certain grounding, humility, and care for others and their communities. Serving the community is a critical aspect of Nihal’s Eagle rank journey and guided his Eagle project. Nihal’s Eagle Project was designing and building a potting bench for Monmouth County Historical Association Covenhoven House at 150 West Main St. in Freehold. The house was built in 1752 and Bernadette M. Rogoff, director of Collections of the Monmouth County Historical Association, has passionately maintained the house and the gardens in accordance with the era it was built in. She is also the beneficiary of Nihal’s Eagle Project. Nihal was inspired and moved by Bernadette’s love and commitment to maintaining the history of the house and educating others about this history. Since Bernadette enjoyed caring for the gardens, Nihal felt that a potting bench for the gardens was the best way to help Bernadette and honor the love, passion, and care she demonstrates. Also, the potting bench was a project that allowed him to input his own creativity, as it was up to him to design the bench while keeping in mind the period history of the house. So this was a creative endeavor as much as it was technical.

Once the design and plans were approved by the beneficiary, Troop 86, and BSA Monmouth Council, he progressed with executing the plans. The planning stage is very important, points out Nihal, “It’s better to over plan than to under plan.” He meticulously thought out all the plan details, even things that could go wrong, and planned out contingencies for them. The biggest challenge he faced was time. He needed to finish the project before heading off to college, so he was racing against time. Having merely 3 weeks to build and deliver the project. But, his careful planning paid off. The lumbar needed for the project was donated by Madison Township Lumber at 284 NJ-34 Matawan. They graciously donated 270 dollars worth of lumbar after hearing the story of the project and the beneficiary. And it took 14 volunteers and one day to construct the potting bench. This was a labor of love that Nihal is most proud of.

Regarding future aspirations, Nihal candidly comments, “I am confused at the moment but will let life guide me to my path and I am fully confident that what I learned at Troop 86 will serve as a strong foundation to build on, and I will be successful in whatever I choose to do.”