Eagle Scout Candidate Shows Living Above the Influence 'Rocks'

Talented musicians flooded the stage of the Ethical Humanist Society in Garden City on May 19, inspiring all in attendance to “Rock Above the Influence.” Leading the event was Eagle Scout candidate Frank Sikorski, a member of Garden City’s Troop 55. 

“My dad is a police officer, which got me interested in drug and alcohol prevention,” Sikorski said. The current Boy Scout has been working his way up to Eagle rank and chose to host this event to serve as his leadership project. 

The event featured a full roster of eight bands, ranging in age from middle school to early college. All eight bands in attendance had their own unique style and sound, and many performed some original songs. 

“We had bands calling us at the last minute,” said Sikorski’s mother, Laura, describing the overwhelming amount of responses they received from groups wishing to perform. 

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Doors opened at 7 p.m., inviting guests to make their way around the room, which was decorated with display boards providing information about preventing drug and alcohol abuse. Many of the boards were created by scouts in Troop 55.  Additional scouts were on hand to assist, helping to pass out prevention information and to aide in collecting raffle tickets. 

In between band performances, scouts announced winners of the raffles, all which received iTunes gift cards as their prize. 

“The purpose of this night is to encourage teens to live a heathy life, free from drug and alcohol abuse,” said Sikorski. “ Please don’t keep this information to yourself. Spread it to people, go around saying to others, ‘Be an influence.’” 

As the eight bands performed, audience members used their entry tickets to take part in the vote for the winning band. 

Martha Boonshaft, the current director of the seventh and eighth grade band at Garden City Middle School; Jennifer Iovino, teacher for the sixth grade band and two jazz ensembles at Garden City Middle School and Michael Russo, music teacher at both Garden City Middle and High school, acted as judges, providing their professional insight and suggestions after each band’s performance. 

“The winner was determined by a combination of judge's scoring and audience votes,” explained Sikorski. “The judge's scores, on a scale of 1-100, were averaged and the audience vote was added to this score.” 

Donald Belger, Scoutmaster of Troop 55, was also in attendance. 

“[Sikorski] has this underlying desire to do something regarding alcohol and substance abuse," Belger said. "He has a little bit of a passion about trying to correct that, or somehow be involved in preventing those two issues.” 

According to Belger, Sikorski’s project was a first of its kind for the troop, and a standout from the typical projects scouts often take on to move up in rank. 

“Most of the things boys do for Eagle projects use wood and nail, or brick and mortar type things, where maybe you go to a food pantry and build shelves or go to the Garden City bird sanctuary and do a fair amount of labor,” Belger said. “This concept is kind of new and I think it’s going pretty well. 

After all the bands had performed, audience votes were collected and tallied along with the judges scores. First place went to the band, "Baked Goods," from Merrick-Wantagh who received a $100 Sam Ash gift certificate and full day of professional recording and mixing at The Mix Palace in West Hempstead.

Second place went to the band "Ellipsis" from Roslyn, who received a $50 Sam Ash gift certificate and three 45-minute piano or voice lessons from music teacher Marie Cozzi. 

Click through the gallery above to see photos from the event and upload yours too!