When rising senior at Cherry Hill West Gage Angelucci set out to work on his Eagle Scout project a year ago, he was sure of only one thing: He wanted to build something.
But it wasn’t until he came into contact with Peggy Wysocki, chairperson emeritus of the Barclay Farmstead Museum, that Angelucci knew exactly what he would do for that project: Construct two benches to be permanently installed in the apple orchard at the front of the township museum.
Angelucci also installed pavers around the benches to cement them in place and built a third, movable bench that sits behind the farmstead. The benches were installed in June, with one close to the front of the museum and the other one closer to the entrance of the Cherry Hill Garden Club’s plots adjacent to the orchard.
Angelucci described his work as “the perfect project,” given that he wanted to build something and Barclay Farmstead Museum wanted something to be built.
“I built benches because I wanted something more permanent,” Angelucci explained. “Eagle Scout projects can range from putting together care bags to blood drives to building something, I personally wanted to build something because I could look back at it in 30 years from now and say, ‘I did that.’
“So I did that.”
Wysocki said the museum had long wanted to put benches at the orchard. The late Lars Loercher – a life-long gardener who planted the property’s apple trees – had also advocated for benches there before he died two years ago, and the orchard itself has an interesting history of having been cut down once before and replanted.
The orchard is a public one, and visitors are welcome to pick the apples as long as they do not climb the trees.
Even after Loercher’s death, the Friends of the Barclay Farmstead Museum weren’t able to find anything suitable or within budget. (The benches cost about $2,000 to install.)
The benches have been enhanced by two pots of flowers donated by the Cherry Hill Garden Club.
“Gage comes to me and says, ‘I want to do my Eagle Scout project there,'” Wysocki recalled. “I said, ‘What are you thinking?’ And he said benches. You should have seen me carrying on! I was so happy!
“We were hoping to have one bench in here,” she added. “He builds two and gives one (more) to the back porch. It was just perfect.”
Angelucci had to learn CAD (computer aided design) to fashion the benches, create the plans, submit them, get approval from the township for digging and oversee construction.
“I had to make my plans as clean as possible,” Angelucci noted. “My dad taught me a little bit of CAD and watched me as I was drawing out the benches.”
The Scout said leadership and planning were the most valuable parts of the experience.
“Being in charge of the project and making sure it got done the way I wanted to get it done, and being able to operate off the Scouts working on the project and also the planning,” recounted Angelucci, who hopes to become an aerospace engineer.
“The process of going through, ‘This is what I want and this is how I’m going to get it done.'”
Angelucci has been a Boy Scout for close to a decade and is now in the townshi’s Troop 70. He began as a Cub Scout when he was about 6 years old and celebrated his 18th birthday recently.
“I stayed because it was fun,” he remarked of Scouting. “When I joined Scouts, Eagle Scout wasn’t even on my radar. I was just having fun and working on different requirements (to earn badges). When I was 16 or 17 (is) when I realized I was kind of close to Eagle Scout.
“I’ve worked my way up just by being in Scouts,” he added, “taking on different leadership roles and doing what I need to do. I kind of got close enough to Eagle Scout to say, ‘I can grind this out and get this out of the way.'”
But the work required to be an Eagle isn’t easy.
“Only about 6% of Boy Scouts nationwide make Eagle (Scout ranking),” said Ron Lewis, Scoutmaster for Troop 70.
Other skills Angelucci has learned throughout the years include how to tie knots and lashes, to give first aid and make fires. He has also learned leadership.
“I love helping make the troop run well,” he offered, “making it run smoothly, making it be the best troop it can be.”
