RBR Student Becomes Eagle Scout Unearthing Pandemic Victims' Histories

Red Bank Regional (RBR) senior Jeffrey Villapiano recently attained scouting’s highest honor of becoming an Eagle Scout by unearthing the grave marker of a relative who died early in the 20th century at the age of 2 and bringing her death and others' gone unnoticed to light.

The idea for his Eagle Scout project germinated when he accompanied his dad to recover the grave marker of a relative, Jeff’s great aunt, the RBR blog says. The 2-year-old had died from influenza in 1917. Her gravesite had long been reclaimed by earth and brush.

“My dad had heard that sometimes the graves were just marked by a lead pipe, as the families could not afford headstones." Villapiano said in the blog. "At most, a small metal plaque would mark their identity.”

One afternoon, armed with medal detectors and trash pickers, Jeffrey and his dad, Gavino, scoured the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Neptune, where the great aunt was buried, the blog says.

The cemetery was used by many Italian-Americans at the early part of the 20th century before regular maintenance occurred or the interred’s names were even recorded, the blog says. There they discovered the stone of Michelina Villapiano, Gavino’s aunt. Father and son repositioned her stone to see the sun again.

In Eagle Scout spirit of performing a community service project, Jeff thought he could bring that same joy to other Italian-American families and provide a great benefit to the current cemetery superintendent who would then log these names in their official records.

Read the entire story on the RBR blog by clicking here.