A Brief History of Scout Troop 184

Boy Scout Troop 184, Piedmont Council, Table Rock District has enjoyed the continuous sponsorship of First Baptist Church of Morganton, NC for nearly 75 years. Originally chartered as Troop 5 of the Piedmont Council on March 15, 1931, the Troop was begun with 11 boys, aged 12 to 16. The first Scoutmaster was Glenn H. Walker, who was a hosiery mill foreman. Assisting him was Mose I. Pittman as Assistant Scoutmaster. The original Troop Committee consisted of R. L. Patton, Chairman, E. M. Hairfield, W. C. Hudson, and W. R. Bradshaw, then Pastor of First Baptist Church.

The Troop continued as Troop 5 until 1962, when it became Troop 184 as the result of a troop renumbering due to council consolidations. Membership of the troop during that period included several boys whom are now prominent members of First Baptist Church, as Ron Black, who later served as Scoutmaster and earned the prestigious Silver Beaver award. Since its formation, the Troop has had 126 Eagle Scouts and at least 10 Scoutmasters. Present Scoutmaster Eric Stuenkel has been serving since 1998. Presently, we have registered 25 Adult Leaders and 43 boys as members. On any given meeting night, we can expect 4 adult leaders and about 20 –25 boys to be present. We have met at 7:00PM on Monday nights since at least 1957.

Last year (2005), we had seven Eagle Scouts, our third highest year, and this year promises to be just as productive with at least that many boys about to become Eagle Scouts or working on that rank. The basic theme of Scouting is service toward others. Each Scout must have service hours to advance in rank, and each Eagle Scout is required to plan, co-ordinate, and carry out a service project that must benefit an organization other than Scouting in some way. In the past, the Eagle Scouts of this Troop have carried out projects consisting of landscaping, trail creation and restoration, memorial creation, construction work, and maintenance work benefiting a wide variety of organizations in our community as various churches, the city and county, local benevolent organizations, and local schools. Annually, we are a part of the Historic Morganton Festival, Mission Morganton where we help distribute food to the needy, Scouting for Food on behalf of the Food Bank at Thanksgiving, and trash pick up on Bost Road.

Paul Faulk, ASM