Boy Scouts from Troop 151, their stolen trailer behind them, are ready to roll again

Community donations from across Long Island have restored an Islip-based Boy Scout troop to full working order about eight months after its camping trailer and equipment were stolen, scoutmaster Tyree Bacon told Newsday.

Troop 151’s trailer was taken from the St. Mark's Episcopal Church parking lot shortly before Christmas. Everything the troop needs “for pretty much everything we do was in the trailer,” according to Bacon, who said the police never recovered it.

But earlier this year, local residents and organizations sprang into action to aid the troop. Cash and equipment poured in, Manorville Community Ambulance donated an old trailer, and by March, the troop had recouped about 85% of what it lost, Troop 151 committee chair Sue Gaiardelli told Newsday at the time.

A local auto body shop on Thursday presented the Scouts with an overhauled version of the donated trailer, marking the culmination of the monthslong effort to make the troop whole again, Bacon told Newsday.

“We’re just super grateful for the outpouring of support that we’ve gotten from every corner of the community,” the scoutmaster said. “It all worked out. Just good stuff.”

Joe Divilio, the owner of Perfect Bodies Auto Body in Bohemia, said his crew put about $5,000 of work into the donated trailer, which he described as “beat up.”

About $3,000 was funded through community donations, while Divilio’s shop donated about $2,000 in labor and materials.

He said the repairs and upgrades included new outside lighting and wiring, a new paint job with the troop’s logo, refurbishing the bent fender and rusted wheels, fixing a leak in the roof and replacing handles and latches, as well as mounting fire extinguishers inside the trailer.

“[We] just refurbished everything so it looks brand new,” said Divilio, who’s also an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 3333 in Hauppauge, where his sons are Eagle Scouts. “Boy Scouts is just so important. I have seen so many boys grow up to become men out of Boy Scouts. … So I do anything I can to help the program.”

Divilio was introduced to Bacon and Troop 151 by Suffolk Legis. Steven Flotteron (R-Brightwaters), a staunch proponent of the Boy Scouts who has known Divilio for years through scouting events they both attend.

Flotteron said Troop 151’s donated trailer looked “a little rough,” so he floated the idea to Divilio of doing the repairs because “I know this is something he would love to do because it’s in his wheelhouse.”

“We have to help each other and help these organizations stay afloat,” said Flotteron, who noted that the troop is run by volunteers. “I think [Boy Scouts] is very important. It’s the whole community and families working to make these little Cubs into Eagles.”

Before the trailer was presented to Troop 151 on Thursday, Flotteron told Newsday: “It’s a happy day. It’s back, it’s better and the whole community has come around. From that bad day [when the trailer was stolen], they got to see the love and support of the community.”

Bacon echoed that point, citing Manorville Ambulance Company’s donation of the trailer, Divilio’s work and the slew of other community contributions that helped Troop 151 get back on its feet.

“People pull together to do the right thing,” he told Newsday. “It renews your faith in mankind.”