Photos & Story By VALARIE BUNN

Bill Danner, age 75, is Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 326 in Meadowbrook. He has been involved with the troop continuously since 1938.

The troop began during the 1937-38 school year, when Danner was an 8th grader attending the old Maple Leaf School, located at 3212 NE 100th St. At that time, the school went through the 8th grade.

Danner's twin brother, Ted, had already joined the troop and after seeing how much fun he was having, Bill joined the Scouts in February of that school year.

At first, the Scout troop met in the Maple Leaf School building, then moved to the Maple Leaf Community Club, which was in a former school building, a wood-frame structure on the southeast corner of 105th Street at 35th Avenue NE. The old school, built around 1910, had been vacated in 1926 when the new brick building was built at the top of the hill on NE 100th Street, a block east of 35th Avenue NE.

The troop continued to meet at the Maple Leaf Community Club building until after World War II, when the North Seattle Post of the American Legion bought the building from the School District. The Scout troop was not allowed to meet there anymore, so got permission to move the troop meetings back to the brick Maple Leaf School.

Troop 326 met at Maple Leaf School from the late 1940s until the school ceased operating in 1979. Then the troop moved to John Rogers Elementary for a year, to Jane Addams Junior High for a few years, and then to Maple Leaf Lutheran Church, where the troop still meets today. The church, located on 32nd Avenue NE and NE 100th across the street from the former Maple Leaf School site, is the only building which still retains the old name for the neighborhood, now known as Meadowbrook.

Danner's parents, Delbert and Imogene Danner, moved to the Meadowbrook area in 1924, buying a house at 11025 38th Ave. NE. The streets, including 35th Avenue NE, weren't paved in those days, and 38th Avenue NE was more like a logging road than a street.

Delbert Danner's occupation was "brush picker." During the week he would drive his three-quarter-ton truck to rural areas in Kitsap County and the Olympic Peninsula in search of ferns, salal and evergreen huckleberry used by the florist industry for building bouquets.

On Friday, Delbert Danner would make deliveries to wholesale florists and take orders for the following week. He would be home on the weekend and then head out to the woods again on Monday.

Bill Danner believes the love of the outdoors and camping got into his bloodstream since that was his father's lifestyle during the part of the week when he searched for florist's greenery in the woods.

In the first few months after joining the Scout troop, Bill Danner became enthralled with the fun of Scout activities, especially camping. That summer of 1938, he went for the first time to Camp Parsons on Hood Canal (between Brinnon and Quilcene) and he tremendously enjoyed the camping and other outdoor activities such as swimming. Back in Seattle, Troop 326 held outdoor summer meetings, hiked to points of interest around North Seattle, such as Matthews Beach, and even camped out in unoccupied woodsy areas of the neighborhood.

Every year, from then on, Danner worked hard on his paper route so that he would have money to return each summer to Camp Parsons.

In 1941, the summer before his senior year of high school, Danner worked as a Cub Scout leader at Camp Meany, next door to Camp Parsons. The next summer, the two camps merged and Danner got a job at Camp Parsons, fulfilling the dream of being able to spend the entire summer at camp.

Danner continued doing that every year until 1954 when a change of employment in Seattle made it impossible for him to go and work summers at Camp Parsons. But in 1953, he became Scoutmaster of Troop 326, so he used his vacation time from work to take his troop to Camp Parsons each summer.

That same year, 1953, Danner's twin brother, Ted, became Troopmaster of Explorer Post 333 at Victory Heights.

In 1997, Bill Danner began working toward a 60-year reunion of Troop 326, to be held at Camp Parsons the summer of 1998. As a service project, he organized the alumni to fund and build a new health clinic building at Camp Parsons. Beginning with a $10,000 gift from one wealthy troop alumnus, a total of $160,000 was raised for the eight-bed clinic with doctor's quarters. Designed for year-round use, when camp is not in session, the clinic building can be used for other conferences. The building was dedicated June 6, 1998, with more than 100 men gathered for the 60-year reunion of Troop 326.

Bill Danner retired from employment, a business he owned in Lake City, in 1993, but has remained active as the Scoutmaster of Troop 326. When asked what he kept him going in Scouting all these years, he replied: "I always thought I would live a long life, but I never thought I would grow old! I'm still a kid at heart because Scouting has kept me young."

Scouting has long been associated with outdoor skills such as camping, outdoor cooking, hiking and swimming, but Danner points out that Scouting has changed with the times. The Boy Scout of the 1990s still learns all of the old outdoor living skills, but it is now possible to earn merit badges in everything from auto mechanics to atomic energy, crime prevention to disabilities awareness. An Eagle Scout is required to earn badges in three different levels of citizenship: community, nation and world.

In the old days, the Scoutmaster led and directed the troop, but today there is greater emphasis on leadership training, and troop members plan and lead meetings themselves. What hasn't changed with the times is the fun, fellowship and education in solid values that Scouting has always offered. Bill Danner's troop, now numbering 27 young men, is always open to new members. Any boy age 11 and up may become a Boy Scout, even if he has not been a Cub Scout. This summer, Troop 326 is having Monday evening outdoor meetings at the Meadowbrook field above the tennis courts, and in the fall will go back to meeting at Maple Leaf Lutheran Church.

Danner invites any interested persons to contact him at 363-8148.