The cherry red, one-room building on the corner of Casa Loma and Imperial Highway has been home to Boy Scout Troop 99 for the past 102 years and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously chartered troop west of the Mississippi River. It was first established in 1916 at The Packing House, then the house was moved to its current location in 1976, adjacent to Hurless Barton Park and the Yorba Linda Community Center.
Scouting at the community level is open to Cub Scouts in Kindergarten through 4th grades, and the Boy Scouts from 5th grade through high school. It is run by volunteering parents and their scouts who co-create learning opportunities for skills development, outdoor education, badge earning, fundraising, and socializing. For over a hundred years men and their sons joined the Boy Scouts to spend quality time and instill the values of the Boy Scout oath: to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
Despite a long history of traditional patriarchal leadership, men have broadened their roles in work and family. A broader vision of who could participate opened the door to more inclusivity so that mothers and daughters were not merely supporting their Scout sons: girls were asking to be let in. This trend of having a more inclusive, family friendly organization led 8,000 girls to become Boy Scout members out of the 2.3 million Boy Scouts since 2017. Today, Troop 99 has a boys pack and a girls pack who all follow the same scouting rules, have opportunities to earn the same badges and ranks, and participate in the same activities.
“Today’s youth is the same as long ago – they want to have fun with their friends,” said Shane Adams, the troop’s current Scoutmaster. “The joy of exploring the outdoors, building a campfire, cooking, telling campfire stories, all with friends within the brotherhood of Scouting.”
