Local Cub Scout packs now allowing girls to join

Lisa Bass
Contributing writer

When Den Leader Emilie Hollingsworth told her Cub Scout Den of Webelos, “You are going to get wet, dirty and disgusting,” on the upcoming campout, the girls cheered.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) recently put out the welcome sign to all girls and young females in all the national scouting programs.

This is a historic move in the 107th year of BSA. Boys and girls will have a chance to experience all levels of this a youth development organization that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship and develop personal fitness.

The local Blue Ridge Mountain Council (BRMC) has allowed some Cub Scout packs to make an early adoption of girls in order to build up the benefits of this model.

In February, Cub Scout Pack 158 of St. Michael Lutheran Church in Blacksburg became an early adopter and formed a Webelos ranked den of fourth grade girls.

Ruby Provo arrived excitedly to her second Pack 158 meeting March 1.

“My best friend told me about the Boy Scouts and the fun we could have together. I said if she wants to join, I will too,” she said.

Based on feedback from families across the country, parents are seeking out the leadership qualities grounded in the Scout Oath and Law. At the same time, busy parents crave more time to interact with their kids.

By allowing girls into BSA, the whole family will be able to maximize that time with one great scouting experience in one place. In the past, sisters have tagged along to pack and troop meetings and events and watched the fun. Now, girls can join in to start earning the awards and recognition.

“Ruby and her friends received an email about Pack 158 allowing girls. My daughter wants big adventures,” Provo’s mother, Sally, said.

Ruby Provo chimed in, “We have already been caving. Now my older brother wants to join Boy Scouts.”

Phillip Amodeo dropped off his daughter, Emma, and noted that it was “a great opportunity for her.”

Packs can choose to recruit girls or remain an all-boy pack. A chartered organization may form an all-boy pack, an all-girl pack or a pack of girls and boys. Cub Scout dens, by rank and grade, will be single-gender, i.e. all boys or all girls.

Ultimately, the choice is left to individual pack leaders in consultation with their chartered organizations.

This hybrid model builds on the benefit of a single-gender program while also providing character and leadership opportunities for both boys and girls.

The Cub Scout uniform, activities and rank advancement requirements will remain the same. The existing Cub Scout program content and activities are appropriate for boys and girls alike.

Cub Scout volunteers will continue to tailor the activities to meet the developmental needs and abilities of children ages 5-10 years old.

The six Webelos girls in the Osprey Den were awarded their Bobcat badge after a flag ceremony to officially start the combined Cub Scout pack meeting with Boy Scout Troop 158.

The Bobcat rank is earned by every new Cub Scouts when entering the program and after completing requirements meant to demonstrate the commitment to the scouting program.

The badge was pinned on each girl’s uniform by their Den Leaders Ashley Bell and Emilie Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth is a Virginia Tech student who jumped at the chance of becoming a den leader for girls in Cub Scouts. Growing up, she dreamed of joining her brothers when they went through the Cub and Boy Scout programs.

She was a Girl Scout for ten years but did not enjoy the experience. She joined the BSAs co-ed Venture Crew twelve years ago and was president of Crew 158. Bell, a fellow VT student, was recruited by Hollingsworth and has had no prior scouting experience.

At their March 1 meeting, the Osprey Den was excited to plan the Pack and Troop 158 Spring Expedition the following weekend to Crabtree Falls off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Hollingsworth explained how Crabtree Falls is the tallest vertical-drop cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River.

Together, Hollingsworth and Bell explained how to decide meals and what to pack on such a campout and hike. Essential foods to cook over a campfire or on a camp stove along with how best to keep that food safe and cool were all taught.

The girls were chatting about meal options with comments like “sounds good,” “sounds so burnt,” “we need marshmallows” and “anything but pop-tarts, “ etc.

The Webelos girls were asked about why they wanted to join Cub Scouts.

“I want to learn a different set of skills,” Jenny Pertchik said.

“Girls can do whatever boys can do,” Kristine Camden said.

Other local Cub Scout packs with leaders, parents, committee members and their charter organizations have started conversations about girls in Cub Scouts while knowing those girls will want to continue into Boy Scouting and work towards the ambitious highest honor of the Eagle Scout Award.

BSA has promised to announce in 2019 a track to allow girls ages 11-18 years old to participate in the Boy Scout program.

Currently, Pack 145 in Christiansburg at St. Paul United Methodist Church is allowing first grade girls into the Tiger Cub Scout program with an adult partner.

Lilly Withers wanted to join Cub Scouting when her older brother did three years ago and she has tagged along to all the Cub Scout events.

When Withers learned girls would be allowed to join, she told her mother, “It was like wishing for a pony and getting it.”

Withers mentioned how much more exciting the recent pinewood derby was as a racer than a sibling.

The United Methodist Men have begun consideration of the eventuality of girls in all levels of Cub and Boy Scouting programs.

Pack 244 in Radford has had positive reactions from its charter organization based at Central United Methodist Church. Steps will be taken to decide how to allow girls to succeed in Cub Scouts.

“We want to present the Cub Scouting program to the best of its ability. We want to involve girls without causing hard feelings in the local Girls Scouts,” Cubmaster Holly Moore said.

With news of the BSA policy shift, national and regional Girl Scouts of America (GSA) officials, as well as some of the local families they serve, have criticized the move, saying the Girl Scouts already offer a full range of activities to girls and do so in an empowering, confidence-boosting setting.

Emily Kamienski is a high school senior who has been in Girl Scouts since she was a Daisy as a kindergartener. She is currently working towards her Gold Award, the highest achievement in GSA.

Her mother was a GSA leader and her father is a Cub Scout leader. She has witnessed both programs growing up.

“There is so much overlap of the programs,” Kamienski said. “There is the same approach to leadership with strict following of badges and ranks.”

While Kamienski would have liked to do some of the BSA activities.

“Girl Scouts are going on trips and dong service projects they wanted to do that would be different from what Boy Scouts would plan,” she said. “And, that is okay.”

“There is no reason a girl could not do both Girl Scouts and Cubs,” Moore said. “That is indeed something we should be promoting. We are not, after all, looking to steal girls from Girl Scouts. We are simply trying to offer them different options. At a recent district round table, there was discussion how good it would look on college and job applications if a person has both an Eagle and Gold Awards.”

Co-ed programming is not new to BSA with these inclusive programs for ages 14 to 21 years old. Since 1912, BSA has offered Sea Scouts for adventures on sea and land. Exploring is a unique career exploration program since 1933. Venturing began in 1993 to allow girls and boys to discover their world with adventures.

These programs are youth-lead and youth-inspired to acquire life skills and gain experiences valuable to their future. As of 2017, Exploring has 39 percent female and 61 percent male; Venturing 23 percent female and 77 percent male; Sea Scouts: 40 percent female and 60 percent are male participation.

The new BSA policy will open up the Eagle Scout rank to girls, which were previously unattainable through those programs.

Lord Robert Baden Powell founded Boy Scouts in England in 1908. A group of girls appeared at a Boy Scout rally in 1909 declaring themselves to be Girls Scouts.

Powell decided there should be a movement of girls and created the Girl Guides. Boy Scouts was incorporated in the United States in 1910. After a meeting in 1912 with Powell inspired Juliette Gordon Low, she established Girl Scouts that same year in America.

BSA is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), which was also started by Powell at a 1920 World Jamboree. WOSM includes scout organizations around the world with more than 40 million Scouts, young people and adults, both male and female, in over 200 countries and territories.

WOSMs mission is to provide these young people, with opportunities to participate in programs, events, activities and projects that contribute to their growth as active citizens.

Through these initiatives, young people become agents of positive change who inspire other to take action.

The Scout Association in the United Kingdom began allowing older girls to join the Boy Scouts in 1976. Since 2007, girls of all age groups are allowed to join. In 2011, more girls than boys became scouts, which was a first in movement’s history.

The BRMCs goal is to recruit boy and girls, ages 5 to 10 years old, to join Cub Scouts in fall 2018.

This will allow time for decisions for existing packs to structure their organization and recruit volunteers. At the same time, Boy Scout Troop leaders and charter organizations are waiting on the projected structure options from the BSA to allow girls to join or graduate from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts.

For more information about joining Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, visit www.BeAScout.org to learn about local packs and troops to contact.

The GSA Skyline Council has a website, www.GSVSC.org for interested girls to complete a form to indicate interest in finding a local troop.