Fifty Years Ago

NCAC History – 1950

In the 50s, while the world was recovering from WWII, NCAC adopted a couple of new beginnings.

Order of the Arrow, the honorary camping fraternity, was established at NCAC on March 12, 1952, when the Charter was granted by the National BSA HQ.

A few years later, the first Wood Badge at NCAC was held in June 1954 at Camp Hoover. The course consisted first of camping experiences of eight days living under as natural a Troop situation as was possible. The second part was a completion of a series of questions regarding philosophy, politics and operation of the Boy Scout Movement.

As part of celebrating our history with NCAC By-the-Decade, we visited with the President and CEO of Goodwill of Greater Washington, Catherine Meloy. Catherine and I had a nice conversation about the impact our organizations make in our communities, and she thanked us for the 1957 Good Turn donation drive. In 1957, the Civic Service Goodwill Industries “Good Turn” program collected 70,000 bags of clothing and received 731,000 hours of service from NCAC Scouts.

Scouts in the 50s enjoyed camping as much as they do today. In 1959, 306 Troops and 5,820 Scouts attended summer camp at NCAC.

This is brought to us by NCAC Capital Comments (June 2011)