Adam Schuit of West Windsor received his Eagle Scout rank at a Court of Awards Ceremony on November 5 at Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church. Close to 150 family members, friends, and dignitaries attended the event.##M:[more]##
Eagle is the highest rank of Boy Scouting, reached by only 4 percent of Scouts. Schuit earned 46 merit badges — well beyond the required 21. He was the first in the troop to earn the Fly-Fishing merit badge.
His Eagle project was designing and constructing a portable Torah Ark for his synagogue, Congregation Beth Chaim (The News, January 7). He presented it at a dedication service held during Chanukah last December.
When Schuit was thinking about his Eagle Scout project, he learned that Congregation Beth Chaim wanted a portable Torah Ark to enable services to be held at youth group events not held in the main sanctuary. After gaining permission from Rabbi Eric Wisnia, Beth Chaim’s director Brian Chartock, the ritual and sisterhood committees, and the Boy Scouts, he was ready to begin his project.
Close to 100 people helped Schuit with the 430 hours of designing, funding, and building the ark. His Eagle advisors were Ken Colbert and Chris Gaylo.
The six-foot tall ark on wheels is made from birch veneer and the doors open flush to the sides so the entire congregation can see inside the Ark when the doors open. The internal light goes on when the doors open and the casters allow the Ark to be wheeled from room to room.
Born in Princeton, Schuit, 15, has lived in West Windsor all his life, first in Penns Neck and since 1996, in Dutch Neck. His father, Michael Schuit, is a deputy attorney general in the environmental permitting counsel section of the New Jersey Division of Law, president of the Friends of West Windsor Open Space (FOWWOS), and an active member of the West Windsor Boy Scout Troop 40 Committee. His mother, Ronda Siegel, is an IBM director and a member of the Central New Jersey Chapter of the Cornell Club. His sister, Emily Schuit, 12, is a student at Community Middle School.
A sophomore at High School North, Schuit competes on the swimming, baseball, and soccer team. He is a certified lifeguard, United States Soccer Referee, and a trained Little League umpire. He also volunteers at the St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center and with New Jersey Special Olympics.
Last year he organized, managed, and played for Troop 40’s first charity softball team in the David Suarez Scholarship tournament. Suarez, a victim of 9/11 at the World Trade Center, was an Eagle Scout with Troop 40.
Schuit, who began scouting as a Tiger Cub Scout in 1997, is also a member of the Scouting “Order of the Arrow,” and earned the Ner Tamid, a Jewish Scouting award. He is a chaplain aide for Troop 40 and has led the Jewish prayer service for scouts from throughout central New Jersey.
Schuit, a piano player, organized an annual musical for senior citizens in 2000 featuring teenage musicians. He has been instrumental in six recitals at the Windrows Assisted Living Facility in Plainsboro.
Boy Scouting has been a family tradition for many years. His father, Michael, is an active member of Troop 40. Adam’s grandfather, Bernard Siegel, was a Boy Scout in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and met Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of scouting.
