Scoutmasters see a fabled past and promising future

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Established a year apart in the 1940s, Bloomfield Boy Scout troops 22 and 23 are currently the only remaining Boy Scout troops in the township.

A recent demise of a Bloomfield troop was Troop 2 which met at the Church on the Green. Troops 22 and 23 meet at the St. Thomas Church and Bethany Baptist Church, respectively.

According to Michael Wirth, director of the Lenape Trail District, of which Bloomfield is a member within the Northern NJ Council, Troop 2 was a small unit for the past several years. It sent its Scouts to summer camp with a troop from West Orange it was so small.

“After realizing the lack of parental participation and low number of Scouts,” Wirth said in a recent email, “the last few remaining Scouts either aged-out or transferred to another troop.”

But this does not mean that there were more Boy Scout troops in Bloomfield that started with No. 1 and increased consecutively up to numbers 22, 23, and so forth. Wirth said troops are not numbered that way.

In the past, he said, when the Northern NJ Council did not exist, Boy Scout Councils governed different geographic areas. When a troop was created in that area, it was given a number. But the council might give the next immediate number to a troop established in another town within its jurisdiction. So, in the same town, numbering was not necessarily consecutive.

But the different councils eventually combined into three districts, Wirth said. Because of this, troops from different towns, in the same district, may share a number. The remaining districts in the Northern NJ Council are the Three River District and the Ramapo Valley District. He said that in 2016, Scouting increased in Essex County by 3.9 percent. In 2014 and 2015, it had increased 4 percent each year.

Boy Scout Troop 22 was formed in 1941. Troop 23, formed in 1942, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Two former Troop 22 Scoutmasters, Michael Credico, 64, and Karl Hughes, 60, spoke about their troop in a conference telephone call this past weekend.
Credico called it “a powerhouse.” In 1994, he said it had about 10 Scouts. Since then, the troop has had a high membership of 90 Scouts. Right now, there are 60 Scouts. Both men recalled other Bloomfield troops that have vanished.

At one time, they said Troop 4 was at the Brookdale Reformed Church; Troop 14 came out of Sacred Heart Church; Troop 27, they thought, met at Fairview Elementary School; and Troop 28 met somewhere near Wright’s Field.

“The backbone of a Scout troop is the adult leadership,” Credico said. “Karl and I were lucky to be led by Mr. Lee White. We called him the Pied Piper. We were lucky to have him teach us. He literally wrote the book, ‘Woods of Wisdom.”’
“Woods of Wisdom” is a compilation of Boy Scout programs a troop can follow. Programs include public service, science, leadership, mechanics and nature.

White, a Bloomfield resident for 45 years, died Jan. 9, 2012. His obituary in The Star-Ledger noted that he dedicated his life to Scouting and was associated with Bloomfield Troops 22 and 23.

Hughes said between 1941 and 1995, Troop 22 had more than 40 Eagle Scouts. Since 1995, he figured some 1,000 boys have been Troop 22 Scouts with about 100 making Eagle Scout. He said nationally only 5 percent of all Boy Scouts become Eagle Scouts but Troop 22 has an average double that.

According to both men, programs that involve the Scouts keep the troop alive. Credico said the troop goes camping once a month. Hughes said they have gone sailing in the Bahamas and hiking in New Mexico.

“The kids respond to it,” Credico said. “It teaches self-discipline and self-respect. That’s what it’s all about.”

When the Scout returns to Bloomfield, he will tell his classmates about his adventure. This gets the word out. Hughes also said that Troop 22 will recruit. For instance, if a kid is on a baseball team but does not get the chance to play, he may be asked to consider joining the Scouts and getting involved.
But running a troop is a lot of hard work, Hughes said.

“We know for every 10 kids, one or two adults will get involved with us,” he said. “We don’t say ‘no’ to help. We try to make the adults have a good time, too. We have 60 Scouts and 45 active adults.”

And the adults bring to the Scouts different career possibilities.
“Some Scouts grow up and come back,” Hughes said. “The young kids get to see educated people and blue-collar guys.”

Credico agreed. He said the Scout merit badges are given in more than 130 categories.

“It encourages the kids and exposes them to different career possibilities,” Credico said. “It gives them insights.”

“You never know what will strike a chord in a kid,” Hughes said.
He said there was one Scout who went on a field trip to Gettysburg. “He went to college, at Gettysburg College, and focused on the Battle of Gettysburg,” Hughes said.

“I’m in Scouting for 56 years,” Credico said. “I’ve never seen a bad kid. If you find that trigger, you can turn them around. Mr. Lee taught us that.”

“And we know mom’s biggest fear,” Hughes said. “It’s that their 11-year-old kid is going out in the world without them. We tell them, ‘Above all, we’ll take care of your kid.’ We live up to it.”

Paul Pfefferle, 57, is the Scoutmaster for Troop 23.
“Twenty-three has always been famous for getting boys into leadership positions,” he said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “We’re broken into patrols of six to 10 boys, broken into positions. The boys run the meetings. Bottom line, we try to let the boys do as much as they can.”
He said that currently Troop 23 has 20 Scouts.

“A decent number,” he said. “We have about eight or nine active adult members.”
Pfefferle said that in the 1970s Troop 23 had about 70 Scouts. He said it was unfortunate there were not more troops in town. He was a Cub Scout in Pack 4.

That pack and the corresponding troop no longer exist. Troop 23, he said, currently has three Eagle Scouts. Pfefferle knew a little about the history of Troop 23. He said it was started by Robert Jensen in 1942, in a storefront on East Passaic Avenue. Shortly thereafter, it moved to its present home in the Bethany Baptist Church.
Troop 23 recently had a pancake breakfast that Pfefferle did not attend. He said he was not there because a short time earlier he had broken both bones in his leg and did not want to hazard the church steps. He was attending a Troop 23 event when he tripped and fell.
“The adult Scouts knew how to stabilize the leg,” he said. “They had been Scouts in their youth. They had been taught life skills.”