Devon 50 Court of Honor Salutes Eagle #284
Mathew Ryan Frey

The Devon 50 Court of Honor was convened June 20, 2009
by Al Plambeck, Devon 50 Trustee Chairman Emeritus

Charge given by J. B. Rettew, Devon  50 Trustee

Mathew Ryan Frey – #284

My name is Matthew Ryan Frey and I have been involved in scouting for around twelve years. I’m not really sure what got me to actually start cub scouts all I remember is my parents taking me to my first pack meeting one day in first grade; I don’t remember any sign up sheet or any warnings of what I would be getting into until I got there. There in my group, Tiger Den 5, in pack #113 is where I got my first scouting experiences. There were about seven of us including my best friend Ted Dorz and a friend I would see a lot of, Fredy Teuz. During my time in Den 5 I rose through the ranks of the cub scouts: Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos I, and Webelos II, and got received my Arrow of Light award.

After crossing the bridge in my Arrow of Light ceremony I chose to go to Troop Devon 50. There was no particular reason I chose this group that I can recall except that most of my friends in the den were going there, one of which was Fredy Tuez. The first trip I went on was the caving trip in 2002, which I remember very well; it was cold, rainy, and we had to set up camp in the middle of the night…also the senior scout I was with, Brian Coonley, got his sleeping bag got soaked because our tent flooded on his side. After this I was placed into Beaver patrol lead by Evan Gross. I had a lot of fun meeting new friends including Scott Toebe, Kurt Rohrbeck, Matt Roe, Mike Scardina, and many others most of whom I still hang out with. Looking back on it out of the big group that I came in with only a handful of us actually made it all the way through. Anyways in my time here I learned a lot of new things and met a lot of interesting people. I earned the rank of Eagle Scout and Brotherhood in Order of the Arrow (both of which I consider my greatest accomplishments in my career). The things I will remember the most of my scouting career are the mystery trip to the Coast Guard Academy, doing Mad Libs at Horseshoe, and other funny incidents that are too hard to describe accurately but if ask Scott Toebe he might be able to tell you about it.

For my Eagle Project I completely redid two closets at the Home of the Sparrow. As I said I did two closets, one on the first floor and the other on the second floor. On the upstairs closet I designed and constructed a sliding drawer system to help manage the four A/C units they had crammed in there. On the first floor closet I completely transformed from what was a storage closet into a computer training room again designed by me with a little critiquing as the project developed. Other then the manual labor of the project the trickiest parts of the project were the limited space and time I had to use in the project; just barely making the deadline. However all said and done I was very pleased by how the project turned out. I would like to make a special thanks to the Tucker Family for all the time and help you put into the project, my uncle John Guilliani for all his help, and especially my mentor Bruce Fields and everyone at the Home of the Sparrow; I promise I will get you those pictures soon.

Now that I have reached Eagle and the end of my scouting career I would like to thank everyone that helped me get to here. First, everyone at camp Jarvis from the scouts to the scout masters for all of you helped me in some small way. Mr. Don McGill for all the help he had making sure I finished my Eagle Project (no matter how painful it was). Next all my friends in and out of camp for the encouragement and support you gave me in order to finish. Finally, to my Mom and Dad for kicking my butt to all the meetings and making sure I got everything done even with three other kids and about five other sports and activities we were involved in.

After graduating from Conestoga High School I am going to the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Long Island, New York where I will learn how to pilot and operate America’s trade ships and maybe fight a pirate or two.