BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

Not one but five members of Boy Scout Troop 83, based in South River, were recently awarded the rank of Eagle Scout.

East Brunswick residents Zach Vajda, Matthew Marshall, Gregory Pinkin Salwitz and Will Stoffers, and South River resident Christopher Molchan were presented with Eagle ranks during a recent ceremony at the Knights of Columbus in South River.

The Scouts attended with their families, as well as a number of dignitaries, including Congressman Robert Menendez, Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Mayor William Neary of East Brunswick and Mayor Robert Szegeti of South River.

The rank carries a special significance, since only 4 percent of all Boy Scouts achieve the honor. Earning the rank involves many years of work, including community service, earning merit badges, learning outdoor skills, holding leadership positions and completing a major project for the benefit of the community.

Zach Vajda, a junior at East Brunswick High School, said his final project was to improve the landscape in the back alley of the Knights of Columbus hall to make the fire exit passable. He also refurbished the men’s bathroom.

He said the idea came from his former scoutmaster, who believed it would be a good project because the Scouts hold their courts of honor at the facility. The current scoutmaster is Zach’s father, Freddy Vajda.

Salwitz’s project involved building a new outside staircase for the Unitarian Church on Tices Lane. He said the staircase allows people to get from a trail at the church to the building’s back entrance. The staircase uses a wishbone formation with the two stairways eventually merging into one.

Salwitz, who gradated from The Peddie School in Hightstown and now attends Babson College in Massachusetts, said he felt it would be a good idea to give back to his church.

Matt Marshall’s project included painting the administrative and Sunday School rooms at the United Methodist Church in South River. He also built shelving units for the rooms.

Marshall said he got the idea from a member of the church, Serg Martynouch, who is also assistant scoutmaster for the troop.

Marshall, who graduated from East Brunswick High School, is attending St. John’s University.

Molchan last year organized a project in which he and fellow Scouts painted house numbers on the curbs of hundreds of homes in South River. The numbers make it easier for emergency service responders to find a house more quickly. Molchan, who was 17 at the time, had to obtain permission from town and police officials, as well as troop leaders.

Molchan is now a senior at the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical High School in East Brunswick.

For his project, Stoffers, now a freshman at Rutgers University, took stock and formed a database of the headstones in the oldest parts of Washington Monumental Cemetery, Hillside Avenue in South River. The records to a number of graves were lost years ago, leaving descendants hard-pressed to locate the final resting places of their family members.

The project had been started years earlier by the South River Historical Society, and was continued by two local Girl Scouts, Christy Sic and Lauren Zdziarski, who obtained their Gold Awards. With 1,150 plots in the old section, there remained a great amount of work to be done by Stoffers and fellow Scouts.

Each of the five recently honored Eagle Scouts was involved in scouting for at least 12 years before achieving the top rank.

“The dedication of the scoutmasters and Scouts of this troop is illustrated by the fact that five Scouts were presented with this honor simultaneously, an extremely unusual accomplishment for one troop,” according to a press release from Troop 83.

At the recent ceremony, the Scouts were given awards from the Boy Scouts of America, letters from many state governors, as well as proclamations from New Jersey dignitaries and awards from local organizations, the release said.

The Scouts have also received a proclamation from the East Brunswick Township Council.