St. Ursula Boy Scout Troop 26 is now celebrating 60 plus years under the sponsorship of St. Ursula RC Church in Parkville, Maryland.  To some scouters, it seems like only yesterday that they were going camping and working on merit badges.  Yet, for over half a century, Troop 26 has been readying young men for their life ahead...to be good citizens, good Christians and good husbands and fathers.

How long is 60 years?  Consider some of the most common things in our everyday life.  In 1943 no one considered the personal computer and the Internet as an everyday tool in business and in the home.  There was no PDA, WWW, http, fiber optics or broadband.  In 1945 there were less than 100,000 televisions in use in the United States. And, who had ever heard of cable TV?  Did anyone think that heart bypass surgery was possible?  What about organ transplants?  Now, we are faced with decisions on cloning and gene therapy.  How many of us have thrown away our glasses thanks to surgery on our eyes?

When St. Ursula Church first sponsored Troop 26, this country was in the midst of WW II. Perhaps as good as any other reason, patriotism drove those early SUS parishioners to start up a troop.  Merit badges still stressed today such as the Citizenship in the Community, Nation and World series enhanced early emphasis on traditional scouting skills.  These merit badges were brought to life in the geography of the time.  Few Americans knew the locations of places like Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands or Papua, New Guinea or Salerno, Italy.  Yet most had a neighbor or the son of a friend who was there.  The daily papers of the day carried much in the way of sidebar information in maps and cultural stories to educate the normal American about where the boys were fighting.

Even before St. Ursula stepped forward with their sponsorship, Troop 26 was well established.  It was first chartered in 1920 with troop meetings held at the Franklin Street Episcopal Church.  In 1938, the meetings were moved to the Baltimore City Police Department's Central District.

With its founding charter in 1943, St. Ursula Parish Boy Scout Troop 26 began a scouting tradition that has now endured for over 60 years.  This achievement is a tribute to past and present members of the troop and, we hope, a continuing source of inspiration to the future members of the troop.