About Troop 98
Welcome to Troop 98! We are a Scouts BSA troop for boys with about 80 youth members from Whitpain Township and surrounding areas. We meet year-round on Friday from 7:30 to 9:00 PM at St. John's Lutheran Church in Center Square, PA (WEBSITE - MAP).
Our focus is on building an excellent Scouting program that boys love, challenging them by incorporating new experiences that are safe but take them out of their comfort zone, and sneaking in the character-building and leadership-development themes that are the essence of Scouting. Our Scouts are divided into "patrols" of 8 to 12 boys, usually all in the same grade. Patrols camp and cook together, compete against each other, and sometimes organize their own events outside of troop meetings. We stress the "patrol method" and always try to push down leadership and accountability to Scouts. Here's some of our current patrols and their patches:
We love to camp, hike and bike and we go on outings about once a month. We go rafting and rock climbing (outdoors, of course) and we do service projects for the community. Each summer we go to two separate summer camps, and our older Scouts go on high adventure trips like backpacking at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, canoeing at Northern Tier in Minnesota, or sailing at the Florida Sea Base in the Florida Keys (also in the Bahamas and the US Virgin Islands).
We also do lots of community service, although our Scouts would tell you it doesn't seem like work. We collected over 5400 pounds of food in November 2019 for local food banks, we help the Kiwanis Club run a really cool event called Winterfest, and we volunteer at Wings 'N Wheels (an antique airplane and car show) every September.
We also really like to BUILD THINGS with poles and rope, a skill that Scouts call "pioneering".
Here's our Ferris Wheel at the 2013 Philadelphia Encampment, where Troop 98 delivered a large part of the program for inner city Scouts and recruits. Our topic was pioneering (no surprise there!) and our efforts were featured in Boys' Life and Scouting, the national magazines of thee Boy Scouts of America. We've been back to help run the Encampment every year since it began, and our Scouts are given lots of responsibility for building and running our events, and helping the visiting Scouts learn, overcome their fear, and have a good time.
By the way, four Scouts can ride on the ferris wheel, although you have to weight-balance them carefully so you don't end up launching anyone!
Many of our Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, which requires them to complete merit badges, serve as leaders in the troop, and carry out a service project. Here are some pictures of our recent Eagle Scouts at their award ceremonies:
11 Eagles - June 2022
12 Eagles - June 2021
10 Eagles - August 2019
3 Eagles - June 2018
THIS VIDEO shows our Party Boat (built on six canoes with a water slide and climbing wall) from Summer Camp 2021 at Ockanickon Scout Reservation. The other photos are from the 2019 Party Boat (but that was only 5 canoes; boo!). We do this just because it's fun!
6 Eagles - June 2017
7 Eagles - January 2017
7 Eagles - May 2016
6 Eagles - June 2015
10 Eagles - June 2014
7 Eagles - June 2013
Every few years we run a Camporee, a weekend campout where Scouts from many other troops gather to compete in Scout skills like first aid, fire building, cooking, pioneering, canoeing, orienteering and more. We always pick a cool theme that ties together all the competitions. In 2009 our theme was Hollywood (every event was based on a movie) and in 2015 our theme was Axis vs. Allies (every event was based on World War II). For each of those events we got to design our very own cool patch. Our Fall Camporee in October 2017 was based on Star Wars and we made it into Boys' Life and Scouting magazines! Most recently in 2022, we hosted over 500 people in the Pirates Camporee (where every event was based on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). These are the patches we designed for each of the camporees we've planned and hosted:
Can you find our troop numeral "98" hidden in each patch?
There's all of this and so much more to do in Scouting and Troop 98!
Stop by to visit us at a Troop Meeting any Friday (but check our calendar first as we sometimes leave for camping; there's a link to a printable copy of it at the bottom of this page). You can also contact us via email: info@bsa98.com
If you're pretty sure you want to join us, check out the "Joining Troop 98" page HERE.
See you at Scouts!
Fall Court of Honor - 2008 at St. Dunstan's
Troop 98 was chartered in 1997 by St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Blue Bell (thank you, St. Dunstan's!). After we got too large to safely meet there we moved in 2010 to St. John's Lutheran Church, where we're chartered and remain today.