The oldest Boy Scout Troop in the LaSalle-Peru area is folding. Scoutmaster Dan Mathews told the LaSalle City Council Monday that it’s due to several things including lack of people joining and bad publicity the entire organization has received over the last several years. Mathews says the local troops was founded in 1960 by Pete Sample and was sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4668. Pete’s son Jerry took it over by about 1975 and Mathews became Scoutmaster in 2013. He says because Troop 20 is coming to an end this year, members will have to move around.
Mathews says this might not be the only troop in LaSalle County that’s ending. He says Ottawa’s Boy Scout Troop could end by the end of this year.
During the last sixty-two years, Troop 20 has seen sixty Boy Scouts have become Eagle Scouts, which is the highest ranking a scout can get. Mathews says there will be at least one more added before the end. He thanked the city council for all they did to support the organization. Mayor Jeff Grove also praised Mathews for what he did for the local troop.