Troop 535 was first chartered in 1959 and has been sponsored by St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church of Saratoga throughout its history. We highly value the support of St. Andrew’s, and stress to our boys the importance of the Troop’s relationship with the church. It is a primary responsibility of each Troop member to respect and preserve church property.
Although we are sponsored by St. Andrew’s, our troop members come from different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds. This is truly one of the strengths of our program.
Before going into the high-minded pillars of the Scouting movement, let’s be clear that first and foremost, the purpose of any Boy Scout troop is to have FUN!
But while having fun, we strive to achieve for our youth the following Aims of Scouting:
Growth in Moral Strength and Character
Participating Citizenship
Development of Physical, Mental, Emotional and Moral Fitness
To achieve these Aims we employ the Methods of Scouting :
Ideals Represented through the motto, the slogan, the Scout Oath, and the Scout Law.
Patrol Method Providing both team building and group communication.
Outdoor Program Application of the Scouting skills and experiences across four seasons of adventure.
Advancement Building self-confidence and maturity through external recognition and self-discovery.
Leadership Providing opportunities for both peer leadership and peer representation.
Adult Association Setting the example of high character and strong responsibility.
Uniform Establishing group identity and promoting personal pride and esprit de corps.
Personal Growth Resulting from the other seven Methods!
Troop 535 is proud of our long Eagle Scout Tradition, and continually promotes it to the Scouts. It is our hope that each of our Scouts will be find it within himself to strive for this Honor, but it is not our goal to make every boy an Eagle Scout. It is, more importantly, our promise to provide each boy every opportunity to become an Eagle Scout.