Greenwich Boy Scout Perseveres Through Eagle Scout Project

GREENWICH, CT — According to the Boy Scouts of America website, the organization "helps youth develop academic skills, self-confidence, ethics, leadership skills, and citizenship skills that influence their adult lives." Troop 9 Boy Scout, current Brunswick School senior and Greenwich resident Reed Gilbert has also learned how to persevere.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilbert and his family frequented Babcock Preserve, a vast 300-acre town preserve off North Street in Greenwich.

Gilbert noticed there were many lost hikers throughout the seven-mile trail system. He even got lost while out hiking with his mother.

In order to obtain Eagle Scout rank and help others, Gilbert jumped into action.

He contacted Darrin Wigglesworth, a parks operation manager with the town, in order to get approval to re-blaze the yellow, blue and white trails at the preserve. He also wanted to install wooden posts with metal QR codes on them that would take hikers to an online map of the park.

Gilbert began working on the project in 2022, and it took him about a year to finish. The work involved removing multiple 10-yard dumpsters full of invasive plant species that were collected, painting dozens of blazes and installing three-foot posts into the ground.

Hikers can now look and find yellow, blue and white trail blazes painted about six feet up on select trees. Trail blazes are part of a universal system of markers to help hikers navigate, and they can especially come in handy when there's snowfall or heavy leaf coverage.

There are 11 QR codes throughout the park.

"It was difficult," Gilbert said. "I had to balance all the school work with all the Eagle Scout work, and I had to manage with the town."

Gilbert’s work made an impression on Troop 9 parent and volunteer Frances Wu Nobay.

"Working at the park with Reed, I was particularly impressed by how collaboratively and diligently Reed worked with Town officials afterschool and the weekends - that's hours of emails, meetings and research, in addition to the physical clearing of the site,” she said.

In March 2023 just three months after finishing his project, Gilbert was out walking the Yellow Trail when he noticed that around 40 blazes had been vandalized and spray-painted over — a significant part of the trail system.

"We came across a huge patch with absolutely no blazes. I didn't understand. I just came here and I just blazed," Gilbert said. "I don't have much free time because of all the work I'm doing at school, so seeing my work crushed like that was pretty brutal."

The town is looking into the vandalism.

"If you have a problem, call the Town Hall, don't go out and deliberately destroy town property. If you have a crime tip, please contact the Greenwich Police Department at 203-622-8004," Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey said recently.

Heavey is a longtime volunteer of the Boy Scouts and an Eagle Scout in his own right.

"When the Babcock property was first acquired by the town in the 1970s, my old Boy Scout Troop 25 camped up there to help Boy Scout John Slusarz mark out some of the very first trails on the property as part of his Eagle Scout project," Heavey added. Slusarz is now a Greenwich police captain.

Gilbert said he plans on redoing the blazes in the future when he has more time.

Despite the setback, Gilbert earned Eagle Scout status and said the whole experience was rewarding.

"It was tough but I really enjoyed it," Gilbert said. "Every time I was on the trails, people would come up to me and they would say, 'Thank you so much, I really noticed a big difference.' So that kept on motivating me and made me feel awesome about my whole project."