Word: trooped
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Misguided Hope. Occasionally the F.T.A. crisscrossed the route traveled by Veteran Troop Entertainer Bob Hope and his annual Christmas show. Although many people inevitably viewed the F.T.A. venture as an attempt to undermine the Hope tour, Jane insisted: "Bob Hope is not our enemy. He's no more misguided than any of us have been in the past...
...along equally well with the townsfolk and students from nearby Colby College. He likes to joke, likes aged bourbon, likes cold beer. Two nights a week he drives 15 miles to the University of Maine campus, where he studies psychology and English composition. He also heads a Boy Scout troop in the best Police Athletic League tradition...
...quite. Poulin's Troop 416 is agonizingly unique, its membership drawn exclusively from the Hilltop School for retarded and deformed children. Each Friday morning the redoubtable patrolman dons his red bandanna and scoutmaster's cap and takes charge of 15 of the most heartbreaking youngsters in all of New England. One lad has only half a face, another is strapped into a wheelchair, several others are schizophrenic; most have an unfavorable prognosis. During one meeting, a boy who could not talk until Poulin formed the troop reads haltingly through the Scout oath, then breaks into happy shouts...
...laugh quickly plummets into uncontrollable hysteria; he smashes a small Christmas tree to the floor and slams his hand against a windowpane. Three other tiny boys clutch at Poulin's legs, shrieking, and try to bring him down. After an hour and a half Poulin calmly dismisses the troop; the boys are taken back to other classrooms by school aides. "This was nothing," he sighs. "You should see the action when I take the boys on trips. You go into the woods and every time you go hunting for one who's left the trail, three others...
Poulin happened onto his volunteer job one January afternoon in 1970, when he was driving his police car by the academy. He stopped and enthralled the children by letting them play with the flashing light and siren. School officials soon asked him if he would form a Scout troop for a group of difficult youngsters. Now Friday morning is the highlight of the children's week. While the task has cost Poulin money from his own pocket -and considerable emotional pain-he would not give it up for anything. He even manages to visit the school...