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Hey, We ARE Bala One!
Okay, here it is. The REAL reason Bala One is The First Troop In America. In 1906 or 1907,
Lord Baden Powell
arrived in Philadelphia to teach men about his organization in England called the Boy Scouts. One man,
Frank H.
Sykes, was so excited about scouting that he started his own troop in the town of Bala, now Bala Cynwyd. His
troop
was called Bala One because it was the first BSE (Boy Scouts of England) troop in America. Later, the BSE cancelled
our charter because they did not want to have international scouts, and the BSE in America just didn't sound right.
So,
Bala One was just a Boy Scout troop, not belonging to any nation's organization. In 1908, Dan Beard of Flushing
Meadows,
NY. started the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) and simultaneously registered his troop of Boy Scouts as
Troop One. When Bala
One was finally made aware of the BSA, it was too late, and we registered as Troop 16. We
maintain the name Bala One to
reflect our history and our pride at being the first Boy Scout troop in America. So
basically, we were the first Boy Scout
Troop in America, not the first Boy Scout Troop of America (i.e. BSA Troop 1).
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