Gabriel Benjamin was born on April 2, 1992 in Hartford Hospital and has spent his whole life growing up in West Simsbury. He attended Tootin’ Hills Elementary School from kindergarten through sixth grade. In first grade, he started his career in Cub Scouts by joining Pack 276 as a Tiger. His memories of Cub Scouting include the annual Pinewood Derby and the Blue and Gold banquets. His pack also often did cookouts at Camp Massaco.
In 2004, when he was in fifth grade, Gabriel got his Arrow of Light award, and crossed over to Troop 175. Gabriel chose Troop 175 partly because of his older brother Noah, who is an Eagle Scout as well, and partly because he thought it was the best troop in Simsbury. Gabriel remembers the many interesting and amusing times that he had while in scouting, which include traversing the subway system in New York City, twice, the first time being a new scout himself, the second time without losing any of the fifty new scouts. He also remembers visiting the historic battle site of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania; climbing Tuckerman’s Ravine on Mount Washington, and falling much of the way down; and the annual trips to Block Island and Nantucket, where biking, visiting the beaches, and wreaking havoc on the town were some of the activities.
But of course, the trip that Gabe remembers most is the trip to the Philmont Scouting Ranch outside of Cimarron, New Mexico in the summer of 2009. He remembers this trip because of the amazing views of the landscapes, spending two weeks hiking, and because of the great crew that he went with.
Gabriel did his Eagle project, which was building a beautification and sitting wall in the courtyard of Henry James Memorial School because of the usefulness of Simsbury Public Schools.
