YMHA/JCC Troop 26

Troop Meetings
Troop meetings were held each Monday night. In the 1950’s, the troop was comprised of two to three patrols with six to 10 scouts in each patrol. Monday night meetings were usually led by the Sr. Patrol Leader or one of the older scouts. At the meeting, points were awarded to each scout for enlisting new boys into the scout program, personal and uniform inspections, winning the drill contest, advancements in rank, and badges earned. I still have the Troop 26 trophy for winning the weekly drill contests. The trophy frequently changed hands between John Borer, Neil Robbins, and Richard Epstein. At the end of the year, a special award was given to the scout who accumulated the most points. An annual banquet was held where members of the scout troop demonstrated scouting skills and received recognition for advancement in rank and badges earned.

One year, Richard Epstein won a trip to Valley Forge to participate in the National Jamboree. Years later, he was told that this duplicated an award his brother received about 10 years earlier. Unfortunately, his assigned tent mate (Paul Dickstein from Troop 65) slept in poison ivy on the first night of the Jamboree and opted to return home. That left Richard to sleep alone without a tent mate.