Troop 40 named John Lilly and Kevin Camara, both of West Windsor, Eagle Scouts at an awards ceremony on September 8, at the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church. West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh issued commendations and Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and Assemblyman Bill Baroni issued proclamations.##M:[more]##
Lilly, a senior at High School South, began his scouting career as a Tiger Scout in Pack 40. He progressed through the ranks of Cub Scouts to receive his Arrow of Light and then bridged to Troop 40. As a member of Troop 40, Lilly has held several leadership positions including quartermaster, patrol leader, instructor, troop guide and den chief. He has attended a variety of all-weather biking, hiking, and canoeing campouts and Klondike derbies, as well as organizing several troop campouts, the most memorable of which was the Annapolis Invitational at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Lilly attended summer camp at Camp Nobe four consecutive years, and also attended camp at Forestburg Scout Reservation and Hawk Mountain, where he served as patrol leader. He also organized Troop 40’s Scouting For Food Drive and participation in the Renaissance Fair. Throughout the course of his Scouting career he has earned 25 merit badges.
“I am very proud of achieving the rank of Eagle Scout,” Lilly said. “It has taken me 11 years to get here, and it has not always been easy, but it has been worth it.”
For his Eagle project, Lilly built 20 nest boxes and installed them at various locations at the Plainsboro Preserve. He created a unified numbering system for his boxes and constructed 70 number plaques to be installed on his boxes as well as on future installations at the preserve. He found the GPS coordinates of all the boxes to assist volunteers in locating the boxes in the field.
Outside of Scouting he has run cross country for the High School South team, and has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, June Fete, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, and many Eagle Scout projects.
He is the son of Marilyn and John Lilly. His mother, a German teacher at Timberlane Middle School and Hopewell Valley Central High School in Pennington, has served as chairperson of the Troop 40 committee for five years and has held a number of leadership positions within the troop. His brother Matt holds the rank of first class scout.
Camara, a senior at High School North, has been actively involved in scouting since his first grade Tiger group. As a Cub Scout, Kevin earned the Protestant God and Church religious award and Arrow of Light. He attended summer camps at No-Be-BosCo and Hawk Mountain where he was a patrol leader. Kevin enjoyed many different camping and hiking outings including the National Jamboree at the Annapolis Naval Academy and the High Adventure Sea Base trip.
His first troop leadership position was bugler on a winter campout where he slept with his trumpet in his sleeping bag to make sure the valves did not freeze overnight. He later was an instructor, patrol leader, and troop guide. Camara organized and led a troop campout at the Coast Guard Academy in Cape May during a storm with gale force winds. The troop managed to get their tents and campsite set up but learned the next morning that the Coast Guard recruits were brought inside because the weather was deemed too severe — while the scouts of Troop 40 remained secure outside.
Camera’s Eagle project was to reset and repair the grave markers in the historic cemetery of Dutch Neck Church and to create a cemetery map and spreadsheet. He repaired 50 cemetery stones that ranged in age from 90 to 180 years old. Several stones weighed well over 100 pounds and required significant help from the many adult and older scouts who volunteered for the project. His work sessions totaled more than 200 hours of volunteer time.
Outside of scouts, Camara played spring, summer, and fall baseball in both Little League and the Babe Ruth League as well as basketball and soccer in the township recreational leagues. In high school he played on the freshman soccer team, the track team, and the junior varsity volleyball team. Camara umpired for three years for the West Windsor Little League and has worked as a life guard for the past three summers. He is also a member of the High School North Wind Ensemble where has played the euphonium all four years.
He is the son of Bonnie Camara, a first grade teacher at Dutch Neck School, and Wayne Camara, vice president of research at the College Board.
“My project was challenging and interesting because each stone was unique and presented a different problem,” the new Eagle Scout says. “The volunteers were amazing, as they were willing to lift and fix very heavy stones during the hot summer months. I think we all felt pretty good that we were able to restore a little bit of the history of West Windsor.”
