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Brothers bring home top badges
By SHERYL KAY NORTHDALE -- For the past six years, James and Thomas Guglielmi have enjoyed similar challenges and rewards as members of Boy Scout Troop 339. The 17-year-old Northdale twins moved up through the ranks together, this month reaching the coveted rank of Eagle Scouts. Both Gaither High seniors passed the Eagle Board Review, making them part of an elite 4 percent of Boy Scouts across the country who go on to attain the most senior Eagle badge. Of the 35 members of their troop, they were the only two to qualify this time around. "It felt great, especially when I finished my project," James said, referring to a community service undertaking the boys are obligated to fulfill as part of their Eagle requirements. James enlisted the help of several friends and then built a walkway that connects a road to the nature center at the Upper Tampa Bay Park. "First I just had to get permission from the park to do it, and that took a bunch of phone calls," James said. "Then we spent 179 man-hours tearing up the plant life and clearing all of that, placing a culvert in the center of the walkway so it wouldn't flood, cementing it all in place, and then covering it with shells and mulch." Together with a group of his friends, Thomas devoted 156 man-hours at the park, enlarging a primitive campsite by 200 square feet, and then laying 650 feet of pipe to bring water directly into the site. "I was glad we got to do it because the site couldn't be used before by larger troops, and now it can be," Thomas said. Both brothers agreed that having the other sibling in the troop had been a positive experience. "We've had arguments over an idea or a plan, but we just talk about it and we always work it out," Thomas said. "And it does have its benefits. Me and my brother are vice chiefs and when we have to plan something out, it's really helpful because when we have a meeting, we're always guaranteed that at least two people will be there: him and me." James said that although the two had always been assigned to different patrols within the troop, they found the time to have fun together. "We weren't around each other all of the time," he said. "But when we were, like this past summer when we were counselors at Flaming Arrow (Scout Reservation), we've always had a great time." Their dad, Bill, 48, a logistics analyst, is the troop's scoutmaster. He has been involved with the organization for the past 11 years. "I know several brothers that are Eagles, but they didn't become Eagles at the same time, and none of them are twins," he said. Having twins in the same troop can be a challenge for a scout leader, said the senior Guglielmi, because the siblings will compete against each other. "But in the end, even that is a positive experience because they do learn from each other," he said. Guglielmi recalled a time when Thomas was elected senior patrol leader and appointed his brother James to be the assistant. At the end of Thomas's six-month term, Guglielmi asked James why he wouldn't run for the senior position. "He told me, "I saw the work Thomas had to do and I'm not going down that road," Guglielmi said. -- You can contact Sheryl Kay at skreporter@hotmail.com.
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From the Times |
