This Sunday, at 6:30 p.m. the public is invited to attend a Court of Honor for Boy Scout Troop 116 at the Lamoni RLDS Church, in recognition of Troop 116's 75 year history.
Actually, Lamoni's Scout history is greater than 75 years. It begins in 1911, one year after the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was established. Interest grew and by 1922 several Lamoni Scout troops had been formed with a total of 80 boys enrolled. Long time resident Don Gillaspey was a member of Troop 4 in 1923. After a brief lapse in charter and organizational changes 75 years ago, what was formerly known as Troop 1 became Troop 116 [at that time a district structure for the area was established and scout troops were renumbered]. Then a 24 year old Graceland student, George Mesley, stepped in to become scoutmaster and it is here that Lamoni's Cub Scout history also begins.
In the summer of 1924 George Mesley attended the Empire Scout Jamboree in England as an Australian scoutmaster with his troop. There he had many visits with Lord Badden-Powell, the founder of scouting, who also knew Mr. Mesley's father from the Boer Wars. Badden-Powell offered George an executive position in scouting, but he declined, having decided to come to Graceland in Lamoni. Mesley also intended to earn his Cubmaster Woodbadge Bead and he told Badden-Powell that to accomplish this he would start Cub Scouting in the USA, if necessary. Badden-Powell encouraged him by placing his own Woodbadge necklace around George's neck to take with him. In 1925 George attempted to charter a Cub Pack through the BSA, but Chief Scout James West wrote back saying that no such program existed with BSA and since this was the first such attempt he recommended contacting the Boy Scout office in Toronto, Canada, where the uniforms and badges would be available and the Pack enrolled in England. So, in March, 1925, Lamoni chartered the first Cub Pack in the USA, 5 years before BSA Cub Scouting was official.
The first Explorer Post was chartered in 1951 and it continued for several years, but lapsed until several years ago when Post 116 was chartered.
Today the Lamoni Boy Scout Troop 116 has 21 scouts and 12 adult leaders with Dan Boswell as Scoutmaster, Cub Scout Pack 116 has 39 cub scouts and 9 leaders with Laura Jeanes as Cubmaster, and Explorer Post 116 has 15 explorers (male and female) and 6 leaders with Ron Ellis as Post Advisor.
Check out more of Lamoni's scouting history on the web at http://www.grm.net/~pkmagle/scouting/history.html