Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 542 Earn Eagle Scout Rank
Charlee Cheng, Raymond Zhao and Jason Sergio of Boy Scout Troop 542 in Maple Glen, Pa., received the Eagle Scout Award, the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America, at a recent Court of Honor ceremony.
During his Scouting career, Charlee Cheng earned 22 merit badges, and held leadership positions including assistant scribe, assistant instructor, assistant ecologist, patrol guide and patrol leader. He attended summer camp at Resica Falls Scout Reservation with his troop for several years and earned the Grand Slam of National High Adventure Award in 2016 by attending all four BSA High Adventure Bases: Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Ely, Minn., Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., Florida National High Adventure Sea Base in Islamorada, Fla., and The Summit Bechtel Reserve, Mt. Hope, W. Va. He also received the Union League of Philadelphia Good Citizenship Award.
For his Eagle project, Cheng led a team of 40 Scouts and volunteers to plant 100 trees protected from deer with iron mesh fencing in Robbins Park in Ambler. The project, which took about 120 service hours, aided a reforestation effort held by the Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation department to reduce invasive plant spread and introduce native plant species. Cheng currently attends University of Pittsburgh, where he is majoring in biological sciences.
Raymond Zhao earned 26 merit badges, a Bronze Palm, and held leadership positions including patrol ecologist, assistant scribe, scribe and assistant senior patrol leader. He attended summer camp at Resica Falls three times and Philmont Scout Reservation in 2016, where he served as crew leader.
For his Eagle project, which took 220 service hours, Zhao led a group of volunteers in doing landscaping work for the Greater Philadelphia Chinese Cultural Center, which is used frequently by the local Chinese community for educational activities and team building. The group removed weeds from overgrown flower plots, applied mulch and planted fresh flowers, then cleaned up garbage from the area. Zhao is a student in the Kogod School of Business at American University in Washington, D.C., and plans to major in marketing.
Jason Sergio earned 71 merit badges, and a total of 10 palms. He held leadership positions including patrol leader, scribe, and junior assistant scoutmaster. He was elected to Order of the Arrow, which is the National Honor Society of the BSA, and received the Roy Imsick Memorial Award from the Baden-Powell District of Cradle of Liberty Council, and the Union League of Philadelphia Good Citizenship Award.
Active in High Adventure activities, he participated at Philmont Scout Reservation in 2016 and plans to return there this summer. He attended the 2017 National Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve and will return to the Summit later this year for the 2019 World Jamboree. He attended Florida Sea Base in 2018 as crew leader of the sailing crew, and joined his troop at summer camp at Resica Falls 7 times. For his Eagle project, Sergio led a team in constructing terraces on the heavily eroded wetland trail at Jarrett Nature Center to restore the trail and make it safe for visitors.
Boy Scout Troop 542, based at Supplee Presbyterian Church in Maple Glen, Pa., has more than 100 youth members and is led by Scoutmaster John Schultz. Since its inception in 1969, 169 Scouts from Troop 542 have earned the rank of Eagle.