Submitted by Boy Scouts of America Pacific Harbor Council
The Pacific Harbors Council of the Boy Scouts of America is preparing to welcome girls into the Boy Scout program beginning on February 1, 2019. Applications and meetings are underway to ease the transition into All-Girl Troops in the new program known as Scouts BSA.
Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will rebrand itself for the first time in more than 100 years as Scouts BSA. Girls in fifth grade through high school (ages 11-to-17) will be allowed to join and work to become Eagle Scouts.
There is high interest in girls joining Scouts BSA with a number of all-female units forming from Tacoma, south to Olympia. Training for new female Scoutmasters is already underway. During 2018, more than 150 girls joined coed Cub Scout units in the South Sound region.
A membership launch party will be held on February 1-2, 2019 at Camp Thunderbird (located at Summit Lake, west of Olympia). An introduction to Scouts BSA activities will be held Friday night and Saturday for new female members.
There will also be an Adventure Campout during the weekend of March 8-10, 2019 at Camp Thunderbird. Female troops will compete with one another in outdoor activities such as axe-throwing and bow and arrow target contests. More information to come.
Background
The admission of girls into Boy Scouts was announced on October 11, 2017 by the national Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization. Boy Scouts will remain the corporate name of BSA while local units will be rebranded as Scouts BSA troops.
Since the initial announcement, more than 60,000 girls have joined Cub Scout packs across the United States. Locally, Scouting has contributed nearly 22,000 hours of community service by 2,100 Scouts and adult volunteers. Projects include helping with food banks, environmental clean-ups, working with seniors, and providing shelter projects that enhance the quality of living in South Sound neighborhoods. During the holidays, Scouts planted flags and wreaths on veteran gravesites and helped recycle Christmas trees.
What’s New – All Girl Troops
What’s new is that older girls (ages 11 to 17) can now join all-girl troops and work toward the Eagle rank. Only four percent of Scouts advance to Eagle Scouts, which brings benefits such as college admissions credits and scholarships among other things. To earn an Eagle rank, Scouts must spend several years in a troop advancing from the Tenderfoot level on up and earn a minimum of 21 merit badges. Scouts must attain an Eagle ranking by their 18th birthday. Older Scouts joining can petition for extensions based on their circumstances.
Youth Protection Requirements
All Scouting activities will require two-deep leadership (by trained and certified adult leaders). A Scoutmaster can be male or female. Whenever female Scouts are present, a trained and certified female adult leader must be present.
Where can girls join?
Contact the Pacific Harbors Council office
About the Pacific Harbors Council – Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910 and the Pacific Harbors Council was established shortly thereafter as one of the first Councils in the United States. In more of a century of service, the Pacific Harbors Council has organized Scouting units from Chehalis north to Federal Way and from the Washington coast to the Cascade foothills
Over the years, local Scouts have helped sell War Bonds, organized Block Watch crime prevention programs, collected for recycling projects and conducted search and rescues in local mountains and along Puget Sound. Today, Scouts are involved in environmental clean-up projects, building playgrounds and parklands, collecting food to stock local food banks and serving all of our communities through active outreach through our Venturing, Sea Scouts and Explorer programs. There are more than 9,000 Scouts registered in the Pacific Harbors Council.
All of this is partially funded by the Friends of Scouting (FOS). The Council’s Annual FOS fundraising Breakfast will be held March 7, 2019 at the Murano Hotel’s Centennial Pavilion in Tacoma. This year’s keynote speaker will be NFL Hall of Famer Joe Theismann who will talk about the need, more than ever, of the virtues and civility of Scouting Leadership in our country.
