Simon Polyakov Memorial Bench

On February 8, we tragically lost Simon. He was an active member of Venture Crew 140, NJROTC, Lacrosse, Cross country, and school.

Simon was a loving, passionate soul that always wanted to make people laugh and be happy. His smiles were always genuine and heartfelt.

My favorite ‘Simon Story’ is while Venture Crew 140 was camping in Pennsylvania. We were at Dutch Springs, and there was a colossal blowup iceberg in the middle of the water. Simon had problems climbing up, but Owen made it up so Simon would not be deterred. He was so proud when he reached the top. He yelled to the shore, “Mr. Green, now what? How do I climb back down?” I replied, “You don’t climb down. You jump!” He yelled back, “Are you kidding me?” It took some convincing, but he did jump down. When he came to shore, he said, “I’m not doing that again.” Of course, he did it several more times.

After conquering the iceberg, he had to eat. In true Simon fashion, he found the biggest, ten scope ice cream sundae, and he had to take a picture of it to send to his parents. He only sent a photo of the first sundae; there is no photographic evidence of the second.