After Scout troop's trailer is stolen, it's Manorville Community Ambulance to the rescue

An Islip Boy Scout troop was left devastated just before Christmas when a thief stole its packed camping trailer from a church parking lot, making off with everything from cookware and tents to a troop sign that had been passed down for decades.

There was little information about who took the trailer, and police didn’t have any luck finding it. Tyree Bacon, the scoutmaster of Troop 151, went on local news stations to plead for information, but that also proved to be a dead end.

“We were hoping that somebody saw something. Unfortunately, nobody did,” said Bacon, whose son Teddy is one of 13 Scouts in the troop. “Everything the Boy Scout troop needs, for pretty much everything we do, was in the trailer.”

Troop 151’s committee chair Sue Gaiardelli estimated the losses totaled about $10,000 — but the troop formed an unlikely partnership with a group of volunteer first responders who will soon cut those losses in half.

Manorville Community Ambulance is donating one of its trailers to the Scouts on Saturday morning. The ambulance company is based in Brookhaven, a town over from Troop 151, but the Scouts’ plight struck a chord with Manorville Ambulance Chief Lenny Schnall.

“If you call 911, we will come to help you in your medical time of need. Well, here’s another time of need for a group of children and their Scout leadership,” said Schnall, who secured his board’s approval to donate the trailer soon after he heard Troop 151’s story.

“We’re coming up on the camping season … and they have no way of getting their gear to a campsite,” he added. “We figured we could help them out.”

Schnall’s sons were Scouts as children, but he had never been involved with Troop 151 before reaching out to help.

Bacon, a volunteer firefighter in Islip, said Manorville Ambulance heeding his call for help is characteristic of first responders.

“It’s not uncommon for the first responder community to step up — even if it’s not an EMS call, or a fire call, or an automobile accident — to help out,” the scoutmaster said. “[The trailer donation] is a huge relief. I can’t even tell you the anxiety I have had personally, but our committee, our scoutmasters, our parents — it’s a huge relief.”

Gaiardelli, who handles finances for Troop 151, said the group has also received an outpouring of cash and equipment donations from St. Mark's Episcopal Church, other Boy Scout troops and the broader Islip community.

She estimates Troop 151 will have recouped 85% of what it lost last year once they receive the trailer.

“I really want to highlight how the community came together and gave us support, especially from people we didn’t even know,” Gaiardelli said. “I think that’s really what’s important. It’s just a feel-good story about how many people have helped us without us really even asking.” 

A win-win for ambulance company

Manorville Community Ambulance serves the eastern portion of Brookhaven and is funded by the town, according to Schnall. He said the trailer being donated was previously used for a youth squad program run by the ambulance company.

That program has been inactive for years, but Brookhaven taxpayers have still been on the hook for maintaining the trailer that’s been sitting stagnant in the back of Manorville Ambulance’s facility.

“It’s registered, it’s insured — we’re putting money into it but we’re not utilizing it,” Schnall said. “It’s not a substantial drain on our funds, but we’re not getting anything back out of it.”

Manorville Ambulance’s board of directors gave Schnall the green light earlier this year to transfer the trailer to Troop 151, a move Schnall said would save public dollars and allow the ambulance company to assist “another volunteer organization that we could help out in their time of need.”

The chief added that if the youth squad is restarted, “we have enough district vehicles that we could use. … We don’t need another trailer.”

‘A good life lesson’

Troop 151’s camping trailer was central to how the group functions: It was kept stocked and could be easily hooked up to a Scout leader’s truck when they went on camping trips, ensuring kids and their parents didn’t have to worry about transporting all the essentials.

Its theft not only cost the troop thousands of dollars worth of equipment but also threatened to throw off that entire dynamic, according to Bacon.

When the troop had a trailer, “Everything was squared away and the boys would just bring their personal gear,” he said. “For that last campout, [we had to tackle the question of], ‘Who brought what from home that would have been prepositioned in the trailer?’”

Gaiardelli said the troop was determined “to make sure it did not impact the boys’ program because it’s not fair to them.” That involved a whole new approach to preplanning and coordination throughout the organization, from the kids to the troop leaders.

Bacon said “everybody has stepped up” to make that happen. The scoutmaster believes the “hardship” caused by the trailer theft ultimately solidified the troop’s resolve, and the group will be better for having gone through it.

“The troop has gotten closer. We were all working together for a common goal,” he said. “So, there’s a good life lesson in this for the kids — we can overcome anything that gets thrown at us.”

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.