The first all-girl troop applies to the Orange County Boy Scouts
Paige Holland had done so much with her brother, Michael, as she tagged along to Cub Scout camps.
They shot arrows. They kayaked. They fired BB guns. But Michael aged out of the Cub Scouts, he soon was a Boy Scout, and Paige could no longer join him.
“She felt like she was left in the cold,” their mother, Tracy Holland, said.
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So, when Holland heard the news last year that the Boy Scouts of America would start having all-girls troops, she pulled Paige out of class at Valencia Elementary in Laguna Hills to share the exciting the news.
Paige is among the 22 soon-to-be scouts who turned in an application to the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday, Jan. 10, to form Troop 7272 in Rancho Santa Margarita. They are the first troop of girls to submit its application to the county organization, which hosted a ceremony at its Santa Ana headquarters to mark the historic event.
The girls waited, eyes wide and hands clasped, as they listened to local leaders and scout officials talk about the day’s significance. But as soon as the application was officially turned in, they no longer contained their excitement.
“We are Boy Scouts now,” Jennae Lebelu, 16, from Lake Forest, yelled as she high-fived her fellow scouts.
Feb. 1 will be the official start for the scouting program for those ages 11 to 17, about five months after the launch of all-girl Cub Scout troops. More than 30 all-girl troops have expressed interest to the Orange County council about starting in 2019, President and Scout Executive Jeff Herrmann said.
Troop 7272 Committee Chair Monique Dumais spent much of summer recruiting the scouts-to-be from throughout the county, organizing events such as hikes and mini golf rounds.
“We are going to rock it,” she said as she turned in the application.
Dumais founded Troop 727, an all-boys group also based in Rancho Santa Margarita, six years ago.
“We’ve done this before,” she said. “All of us felt really strongly that this program is amazing.”
Just like Paige, many scouts who joined Troop 7272 have siblings in Boy Scouts.
So, that means Sophia Del Rosario, 13, from Las Flores, has seen her brother pack his bag for Boy Scout camps and return home exhausted from the experience.
“I always see the beginning and end,” Del Rosario said. Now she’ll know the experience for herself.
They were excited about all the outdoor adventures that lie ahead: Backpacking at Little Jimmy Trail Camp in Angeles National Forest, zip lining at the Irvine Ranch Outdoor Education Center and camping at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, among others.
The organization is keeping girls and boys separated at their den or troop level, but those small groups may link with other gendered groups for activities and events, such as Scout-O-Rama, community service projects and camps. Troop 7272 will join the all-boys Troop 727 on Feb. 9 to deliver gifts to veterans at the VA hospital in Long Beach.
“All the research out there says a single-gender program for advancement is still needed,” Julie Anderson, family scout director for the Orange County organization, said of the decision to keep dens and troops all male or all female. “The fun things, the camp outs, the hiking, can be together.”
Jim Clements, with VFW Post 6024 of Mission Viejo, the troop’s charter organization, said he believes the new scouts and the perspective the girls bring will be a benefit to the Boy Scouts organization.
“You girls are going to raise our bars,” he told them at Thursday’s event.
Near the end of the ceremony, Herrmann pointed to the photos of Eagle Scouts doing the traditional two-finger Boy Scout salute with words from the Scout Law.
By the end of 2020, the first females are expected to earn the prestigious Eagle Scout rank, which requires a number of badges to be obtained, leadership experience and an extensive community service project.
Herrmann asked who in Troop 7272 wants to be an Eagle Scout.
Everyone raised her hand.