Tom Cooke (foreground) and Nick Ostertag recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of their Eagle Scout induction ceremony at Bromfield last Saturday. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

When Scoutmaster Bob Hubert asked the audience to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of last Saturday’s Eagle Scout induction ceremony in Cronin Auditorium, more than 200 friends and family of Thomas “Tom” Cooke and Nicholas “Nick” Ostertag rose from their seats. Cooke, a senior at Bromfield, and Ostertag, a freshman at Monty Tech, capped their Boy Scouting careers with the ultimate award for service. Near the end of the ceremony, Rep. Jamie Eldridge presented both boys with a letter of commendation to accompany those written by President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as State Rep. Harriett Stanley. The boys also received a proclamation from the Harvard Board of Selectmen naming Saturday, March 8, as “Thomas Cooke and Nicholas Ostertag Day.”

Working with Senior Patrol Leader Kyle Smith and other members of Troop 1, Hubert led the boys through the Eagle Scout candle ceremony. Both Cooke and Ostertag chose the ceremony from a list of other possibilities because it involves other members of the troop, Hubert noted, adding that such generosity was typical of them both. Pride in the boys’ achievements was evident throughout the scoutmaster’s remarks as he told stories about them gleaned from his 12 years at the helm. But what he was most impressed by, he said, was the dedication Cooke and Ostertag showed to scouting in spite of the mounting pressures of the teenage years to be involved in schoolwork, jobs, and friends. Eagle Scout status is something only 3 percent of all scouts achieve, Hubert said later, and the requirements for induction are stringent. Each boy has to choose a community service project that entails 70—or more—hours of effort, and often requires that he go through the process of getting approval for the project, request the help of key adults, and supervise volunteers.

Cooke’s Eagle Scout project involved clearing a trail from the back of the Bromfield property through to the water at Barba’s Point. The land, held by the Conservation Trust, had long been neglected and was covered with thorn bushes. Behind those bushes were a number of unpleasant surprises, Cooke discovered: besides household trash, he found a cast-iron bathtub, a washing machine, and other cast-off items that required hours of effort to drag away and dispose of. Once the clearing was done, Cooke began working with local carpenter Scott Nutting to make benches and directional signs so that townspeople could find their way to the new spot on the water. Cooke’s mother Lynn estimated that her son gave more than 200 hours to the project.

When he took the stage to talk about his climb to Eagle Scout, Cooke was quick to credit a number of other people for success in reestablishing the trail, and he gave them all pins as tokens of his appreciation. Nutting, Hubert, and Margaret Grogan all received mentor pins, and Dr. Philip Knoettner, Mark Bierbower, and Greg Smith all received “thank you” pins. Paul Willard and the Park and Recreation Commission were also helpful to her son, Lynn Cooke noted.

Sponsored by the Harvard Snowmobile Club, Ostertag both built and supervised the building of a bridge on Conservation Trust land behind the elementary school. He spent more than 70 hours on the project, he said, which he started more than a year ago. Ostertag really began to get excited about becoming an Eagle Scout when he was close to the end of the project, he said, when all was finished but the bridge’s railings. He was also very appreciative of the help given by his father and friends of the family, who also pitched in on the project.

For their influence and help throughout his scouting career, Ostertag called up three people to receive mentor pins when he gave his speech: Hubert, Smith, and Patricia Cochrane were all chosen to receive that honor.

For all their years of effort to get their boys to Eagle Scout—for every cookie baked and wreath sold and every soda can in between—parents Dave and Lynn Cooke and Bill and Sue Ostertag received special pins from their sons, and were applauded by the audience.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, newly inducted Eagle Scouts Cooke and Ostertag invited the audience to a reception in the Bromfield cafeteria, and followed the Troop 1 color guard out the doors of Cronin to begin celebrating their achievement.