Patch Whiz Kid Of The Week: Jacob Gerte

Meet the Clinton Patch's "Whiz Kid" of the week - Boy Scout, soon-to-be Eagle Scout, and Morgan School student Jacob Gerte.

Name:  Jacob "Jake" Gerte

Grade:  10

School:  The Morgan School

Accomplishments and Key to Awesomeness:  Jacob took a ho-hum and somewhat neglected area near the town marina and transformed it into a beautiful spot as the project for his Eagle Scout medal and badge.

As a scout with Troop 55, Jacob started at the top and visited First Selectman Willie Fritz to propose a bridge project at Cream Pot Road for his Eagle Scout project.

“The first selectman didn’t shoot down my idea, but he told me about the wetlands involved in the bridge project and suggested Esposito Beach as a project instead,” said Jacob, the son of Donna and Thomas Gerte.

Esposito Beach is a little strip of land wedged between the town marina and Aqua Restaurant.

At the beach, Jacob said the existing brick work was all messed up, there were many missing bricks, and there were old, broken benches. In short, the place was a mess.

Like all Eagle Scout projects, a big part of the work was exercising his leadership skills to recruit a crew and find donations of materials and labor. Jacob said the town’s Department of Public Works headed by director Pete Neff assisted by delivering sand and bricks to the site.

He also called his great uncle Joe Cennamo who is a mason.

“I was nervous because I didn’t know how to do brick work,” said Jacob.

His fellow scouts worked long hours on the project helping build the benches from scratch, lay bricks, and clean up the area.

Food donations came in from Saldamarco’s, Clinton Pizza, Aunt Shirley’s and Bradley & Wall in Madison, said Jacob.  

Not only did Jacob spend some serious time working at Esposito Beach, he had to complete reports on the project, fill out paperwork, track its progress, show the goals, and work with the town’s Design Review Board.

“This was definitely the hardest project I’ve ever done but it was great,” said Jacob.