Boy Scout Troop 252 has been chartered by All Saints' Church since 1962. The church provides the unit with permanent meeting rooms for storage and display of totems, flags, articles of recognition, nature items, photographs, etc..
The unit meets weekly and the Patrol Leaders Council plans monthly outdoor activities and an annual stay at a Scout Council summer camp. The Scouts also participate in our local Delaware District camporee, Klondike Derby, Thanksgiving Food drive, and District First Aid contest. The troop is rated as a "Quality Unit" by the National Council. A full advancement and outdoor program are offered to all interested young men who have completed 5th grade or age 11.
Troop History
In 1907 Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scout movement in England. The movement grew rapidly and by 1910 the Boy Scouts were started in the United States. The first American Boy Scout manual was published one year later in 1911. A list of the sponsors of the movement in the manual included many people well known at the time including Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Thompson Seaton and Dan Beard.
Lord Baden-Powell had retired from a long military career as a Lieutenant General and hero of Mafeking in South Africa to give his time to the Boy Scouts. His sister, Agnes, gave her time to the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts. In 1912, Stephe, as he was called, married Olave St. Clair Soames who was soon to become World Chief Guide.
In 1916, Percy Brown became the Rector of All Saints' Church. His wife, Gladys Powell Brown, was the cousin and very close friend of the Baden-Powells. She was frequently a visitor at Pax Hill, Baden-Powell's country home in Hampshire, England. Mrs. Brown was the daughter of the first British Consul General to Philadelphia.
Troop 252 was founded at All Saints' as a part of the Boy Scout movement and the numbers grew with parish support. The troop met in the auditorium of the Day School (now the Parish Hall) and even had their own campsite. The Stevenson family loaned a piece of their property along the Poquessing Creek for a cabin on the site and a place at the "swimming hole". The remains of the cabin fireplace are still there.
After the death of her husband in 1941, Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, became a world spokesperson for the Scouts and Guides, attending jamborees, camporees, and conferences for the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts to promote the movement all over the world. She usually ended her trip at All Saints' Rectory and spoke to the congregation from the church pulpit or the stage of the Parish Hall. Baden-Powell was 55 and his wife 23 when they married. They shared the same birthday, February 22nd, now known to scouts around the world as Founders Day. Lady Baden-Powell died in 1977 at the age of 88 and now rests with her husband at Pax Tu, Nyeri, in Nairobi, Africa.
