Tag: Eagle Scout

Mr. Harty Memorial

By Mitchell Slepian, Chairman, TMR Scout Museum

Thursday, November 2, Staten Island scouting was hit hard. No all of scouting was hit hard. We lost Mr. Harty. Francis J. Harty was his full name. Mr. H. to most of us. The entire scouting community feels the weight of his loss.  He was a scoutmaster for a few decades, Aquehongian Lodge #112’s (112) advisor for five years, Vigil Honor (Bear Lover was his name. I named him), Silver Beaver, and more.  There is not enough space in the Grand Canyon to list everything he did and how many lives he influenced. 

A few months ago, I was in Alpine Scout Camp for Kintecoying Lodge #4’s (K4) spring meeting. K4 is the merger of the five borough legacy lodges. I miss my 112. My memories of it, many shaped by Mr. H., will live in my vaulted aisles of memory forever, back to Alpine. I was walking along the trails by the dining hall and taking a few pictures. I noticed garbage on the trail. Some water bottles and candy wrappers were on the floor in the middle of our precious woods. Disgusting. I picked everything up and tossed it in the trash can, which was not far from where the trash was thrown. It brought back memories of walking the Camporee Field and trails in William H. Pouch Camp, Staten Island, NY, with Mr. H. Every time he saw trash on the floor, he would pick it up. Sometimes, he may have carried a plastic bag from the local supermarket just to stow away the garbage defacing our precious woods. I mentioned it to a buddy who was a member of Troop 8, the troop Mr. H led for most of his scout life. 

Thanks to him, dozens of boys soared to the rank of Eagle, and a few became chief or officers in 112. The number of people called to the Vigil was above average. 

My time as lodge chief when he the advisor was terrific. I am now thinking of when we produced our lodge’s newsletter. It was a team effort. My committee chairs mailed or handed me their type reports. No email, social media, or texts back then. Simpler times. I sat on my Atari 600XL and typed everything into a newsletter. Then I gave it to Mr. H. He got someone to run off about 200 copies. A few of us gathered at his house and ate the world’s best chocolate chip cookies baked by his wife, Mrs. Betty Harty. Her Vigil name is Busy Baker. No one bakes like she does. We stapled, folded, and labeled the newsletters. When we were done our trusted advisor would get them over to Mr. George Abdou, another great member of our scouting community, who worked at the Manor Road Post Office. George made sure they were mailed out to our membership. It was a great night of true scout spirit. We may have had to suffer by having a Mets game on TV. But nothing was better than working together—one of the things he made us do. 

I remember when we did the “Hernia Patrol” weekend up at Ten Mile River Scout Camps. He decided the lodge should work the weekend and go on a canoe trip. He wanted us to work hard and have fun. A bunch of us youth went up for a few days. We worked hard. Everyone but I worked to get Camp Aquehonga ready for the summer. 

Me? I went to Kunatah and worked on the docks at Rock Lake. I was told not to jump in when we finished working. Did I listen? I will let you decide. Then I took a hike to Chappy, Picture Window, and Indian Cliffs. I returned to the rest of the gang, and we had a great BBQ and hung out all night. Bright and early the following day, we paddled the Delaware. Michael Poller was in my canoe. Mr. H. paddled solo and watched us all. We jumped into his Jimmy (remember those cars) and returned to Staten Island—another successful work and fellowship weekend.

As I moved into the adult phase of my scout life, he was there. He made sure I made the transition. He did that for hundreds of Staten Island’s scouts, and we all miss you. But we will continue to be active and help the next youth group. We know you want that. You will always be in our minds as we hike the easy and challenging trails. Because of what we learned under his leadership, we will complete the rugged trails and be stronger. 

Volunteering

How many of you volunteer? I’ve been involved with this since I was a little kid. Well, not sure the Cub Scouts was volunteering. I joined because I wanted to copy my fadder (That’s what a former Chappy camper used to call his dad. I think he still does.) I’m Eagle. He’s not. But from Cubs through the Boy Scouts the emphasis was helping others. We had to do our good turn daily.

I have always given back and been involved as an adult leader. These days I don’t do as much as I used to. I guess because I am no longer a Staten Islander. In my teen days when I was chief of Aquehongian Lodge #112, one thing I noticed we had a steady group of adult leaders volunteering. My job was to get the youth involved. One of my favorite leaders used to scream, “We need more boys. We gotta keep this program going”. I miss him. I’m proud to say my meetings usually had about 100 people attending. Most were scouts. These days we are lucky if we get 10 people in the room.

I had my core group of leaders and volunteers. I appointed them all. One once said, “Yeah you had to be nice to him and have lunch with him the Tottenville High School Library and rehearse the ceremonies. Then you got any position.” Of course, he is one my close buddies. Perhaps that was the case. Or perhaps it was not. I sense someone may comment about how many trunks I used to carry in camp? But that’s in another post.

Many of the fun adults are still around. Some left us for the great campsite in the sky. I hope if I ever get there it looks like Chappy Hill. The Hill I remember. That was my summer camp.

I never stopped volunteering. In my frat, Tau Epsilon Phi, I led tons of community service projects on SUNY New Paltz’s campus.

I was a trustee on the Ten Mile River Scout Camps’ Museum committee. I handled their PR and edited our newsletter, “Smoke Signals”. I could do more with the group. They are my camp family. Many of them watched me grow up. Some of these scouuuuts (our camp joke) met me when I was 12.

About six years ago, I had my best Thanksgiving. I was in Tel Aviv and worked with the kids from ELEM/Youth in Distress in Israel. ELEM’s N.Y. office does a lot in the U.S. to help these kids. I am part of it.

I‘ve noticed in all my activities is that no matter how hard you try to bring in new blood, it is always the same group. Whenever new people come to help out we usually wine and dine them to the extreme. Offer them cool patches. Whatever it takes. A few comeback.

Sadly it usually the same bunch that grinds it out. There’s nothing wrong with that. We all know who will be late and what everyone will drink? And of course, who will complain about something.

We are the ones who will arrive hours before the event and stay hours later. We will be the most stressed and sometimes the dirtiest. But it is us who will have the most fun. So join the party. You won’t be let down.

Imagine if we could double our attendance? Just think of how many more Eagles would soar? Or how many distressed Israeli kids could have a better life.