One special “mission” for the Indianola Rotary Club has been the support and sponsorship of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1924-25, the club organized the Sunflower River Council of the BSA comprised of ten lower-Delta counties. Two Rotarians were elected as president and treasurer for the council. The club also helped the council hold its first camp at Four Mile Lake.
The club was enthusiastic in its support of Boy Scouts and sons of members became Eagle Scouts and the tradition continued. The late Leslie Fletcher was a stalwart scoutmaster and had over 200 Eagle Scouts under his leadership from 1954 to 1990. F.G. Cooper’s plantation just south of Indianola was the site for the Delta Jamboree for years.
The Indianola Troop #1 was the first troop formed in the new BSA council. With so many scouts coming through the Indianola troop and the leadership provided by Fletcher, the Rotary honored him.
“He’s had over 200 Eagle Scouts and to honor him we raised money and renamed the road after him, Fletcher Way, and we named the Scout Hut on the bayou on Main Street after him. He went to Camp Tallaha with us every year and was a great guy.”
Dr. Walter Rose, an Eagle Scout himself, got involved with the Boy Scouts first as a cubmaster when his late son, Dr. Sammy Rose, was involved through Cub and Boy Scouts.
“Early on when I first got here, I was a cubmaster for several years and when Sammy graduated to Boy Scouts I backed off from being a scoutmaster because Leslie was here. But I went to Camp Tallaha and helped out. Sammy was an Eagle Scout and so was Samuel (Sammy’s son),” Dr. Rose said.
Tom Gresham has been part of the Rotary Club since graduating from Southern Methodist University and coming home to work in 1983. His Rotary connection to scouting runs deep.
“I was an Eagle Scout and Leslie Fletcher was my scoutmaster. My dad was an Eagle Scout, my brother was an Eagle Scout and my two sons were Eagle Scouts,” Gresham said. “The Rotary Club was very active with the troop. They conducted board of reviews and some would teach merit badges. Mr. Jack Harper, who was the chancery clerk, taught us Citizenship in the Nation and Citizenship in the World. He and Mr. Corder took our class down to Jackson during the legislative session. We wore our Boy Scout uniforms and got to meet our state representatives and state senators.”
Gresham remembered that Rotarians would attend Camp Tallaha Boy Scout camp so Fletcher and other leaders could come home and tend to their farms or businesses and go back.
“It was a big troop and we had the Troop Committee that met and made sure they had the supplies they needed and that we were giving them the money they needed to perform as a troop,” Gresham said.
Sadly, Troop 41 has dwindled recently and isn’t currently active but Rotarian Doug Russell, former Scout and scoutmaster of Moorhead Troop 47, has been working to revive the troop. He explained that the Indianola troop was a shining beacon and leader across the Delta for generations.
“Leslie let us tag along all over the country that we couldn’t go to on our own,” Russell said. “He gave us his old school bus.”
Russell is looking for a dedicated scoutmaster to take over the troop.
“We’ve been trying to reorganize it and need someone to lead it,” Russell said. “We have money in the bank to sponsor it. I think if we had a scoutmaster and one or two assistant scoutmasters, we have the willpower and everybody’s support to get it going.”
