SCARBOROUGH – Since its start in 1931, Boy Scout Troop 39 has had a long and rich history in the Scarborough community.

This month, the troop reaches a significant milestone when its 99th, 100th and 101st Eagle Scout – the organization’s highest honor – will be recognized in a Court of Honor.

Previous Eagle Scouts and scoutmasters from the troop will be on hand March 26 at the Black Point Church in Scarborough when 17-year-old Scarborough High School seniors Scott Delisle, Daniel Friedman and Jonathan Ofiara will be honored.

According to the National Eagle Scout Association, the rank is earned by only 5 percent of Boy Scouts of America each year. Among the nearly 2 million others who have earned the honor are astronaut Neil Armstrong, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and Academy-award-winning filmmaker Stephen Spielberg.

“All three boys exhibit a tremendous amount of perseverance and commitment to scouting,” said Bill Brown, chairman of the Troop 39 Committee, the troop’s leadership board, which is in charge of finances, organizing activities and reporting to the troop’s charter organization, the Scarborough Lions Club. “They have all offered a great deal of leadership to the younger Scouts and are involved in the community. They exhibit the character needed for scouting.”

Doug Friedman, who was Scoutmaster for the troop for three years before stepping down last June, said he is most proud of the dedication his son Daniel has shown in his Eagle Scout journey.

“They persevered. They stuck through it though a five-plus year journey to get to Eagle Scout,” he said. “There are not too many things at that age that require that sort of focus. It really gives me great pride that he got there. I think it’s quite an amazing achievement that we got these three Scouts who earned Eagle Scout at the same time.”

Ofiara said he got involved in 2000 when his family moved from New York to Maine.

“I really enjoy meeting new people and doing all the activities that normal kids don’t have an opportunity to do,” he said.

Delisle and Friedman agree that scouting offers them an opportunity to meet new people and take on new experiences.

“Scouting offers you a lot of opportunities you don’t get in a lot of places,” Delisle said.

Boy Scouts, a program for boys ages 11 to 17, started in 1910 as a way for young men to build character, learn citizenship and develop personal fitness. While the central tenets have remained the same, the Boy Scout program, Brown said, has continued to evolve.

“They keep updating the program at the national level in terms of the different merit badges required, which comprise a wide range of things, not just camping, hiking or outdoor activities, but computers and different professions such as aviation and engineering type disciplines,” Brown said.

Because the local Scout program is organized and orchestrated by parents, there is an opportunity to structure a program that meets the needs of the Scout group and take advantage of regional opportunities.

“We are able to make the decisions of what they do on a weekly or monthly basis as long as it meets the Scout guidelines,” Brown said.

“I think this Scout troop does a wonderful job reaching out to the kids in the community and teaching them new skills, whether they earn Eagle Scout or not,” said Delisle.

The success of Troop 39 over the years, Brown said, is a function of the support the troop has received from the Lions Club and the families involved in running the program in Scarborough. Currently, there are 23 boys involved in the troop.

“All three of them have had a lot of support from their families,” Brown said of Delisle, Friedman and Ofiara. “I think that is the biggest thing in getting to Eagle Scouts – the support from parents and family.”

“One of the reasons we have been successful with Eagle Scouts in the troop lately is we’ve had some very dynamic and dedicated Scouts,” Doug Friedman said.

To earn the honor of Eagle Scout, a boy must work his way through six ranks and earn 21 of the 120 available merit badges. The final requirement to earn the Eagle Scout badge is to organize, supervise and complete a service project for his religious organization, school or community.

Delisle’s Eagle Scout project came out of a cleanup event at Scarborough Marsh in the spring of 2008. It was at this event, he said, that he learned that the number of chimney swifts, a native marsh bird, were declining because of loss of habitat from homeowners screening their chimney openings and cutting down hollow trees where the birds like to make their home.

After talking with Linda Woodard, the manager of the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center, Delisle decided to construct a 13-foot-high chimney swift tower next to the nature center.

“I like the marsh a lot,” he said. “It is an important ecosystem for the area and the town of Scarborough.”

Work planning the tower began in May 2008 and was completed by April 2010.

Woodard said she hopes the chimney swift tower, which was constructed on the back side of the nature center, will become a welcome respite for chimney swifts. Currently, the birds do not make the marsh its habitat, but that could change, she said, now that the structure is up in place.

“We are hoping they will find it,” she said. “We did see some near it during the south migration, so perhaps they were checking it out,” she said.

The relationship between her organization and the Boy Scouts organization is a natural fit.

“The Boy Scouts are all about serving and helping others and building community,” she said. “It is a natural connection to work with them. Their enthusiasm is great.”

As an avid hiker, Ofiara chose to organize a cleanup and rehabilitation project on a 6.3-mile section of the Imp Trail, a part of the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, for his Eagle Scout project. The project, which included brush cutting and water bar work, took place through 300 volunteer hours between May and August 2010.

Friedman decided to build a new, 12-by-16-foot horse stall at Camp Ketcha on Black Point Road for his service project.

With no previous experience in construction, Friedman said, he learned a lot from the project, which took place over a three-day period late last summer.

Friedman said his time in scouting, including organizing the service project, has shaped him to be the person he is today.

“It improves you in so many more ways than people realize. It has not only helped me in school, but everything I have done,” he said.

Although Delisle, Friedman and Ofiara are about to age out of Boy Scouts when they turn 18, all three indicated the journey to Eagle Scout is something that they will never forget.

“Eagle Scouts,” Delisle said, “give you an honor that you can carry with you your entire life.”

The 99th, 100th and 101st Boy Scout from Scarborough Troop 39 to earn an Eagle Scout designation are, from left, Daniel Friedman, Scott Delisle and Jonathan Ofiara. (Courtesy photo)