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Scouting Wire

THOUSANDS OF GIRLS ARE JOINING CUB SCOUTS
April 24, 2018
Tatum and Ian W., 10-year-old twins who are both participating in Webelos, are looking to be among the first brother/sister duos to eventually earn the rank of Eagle Scout. It’s all possible thanks to Tatum’s recent participation in Pack 154, which is part of Daniel Webster Council in Durham, New Hampshire.

The pack began welcoming girls to Cub Scouts in January of this year as one of our early adopter units. Full Cub Scout registration options for girls will be available to all councils starting June 11, 2018, while a program for older youth has a scheduled February 2019 launch.

Tatum W., center, and her brother Ian, left, are shown at a recent Cub Scout meeting where they built wooden tool boxes. All photos: The Associated Press

In joining Cub Scouts, Tatum — who was recently featured with her brother in an article by The Associated Press highlighting the growing availability of Cub Scouts for girls — became one of thousands of girls who have already joined a pack.

The Associated Press article, which was syndicated broadly, shared further details on the early adopter packs.

With more than 3,000 girls already signed up and roughly two-thirds of BSA councils participating, the program has been a way to address the requests that had been pouring in from families.

BSA Director of Communications Effie Delimarkos shared with the Associated Press that the requests started back in October of 2017, immediately following the decision to open up the program.

“We heard from our families, ‘OK, you’ve made the decision, can you please give us a way to do this right now because we’ve got families and daughters that are just really excited about it,” Delimarkos told the AP.

Tatum’s family was just one example. Like many girls, Tatum had been participating alongside her brother at some of his Cub Scout activities for years, but she hadn’t been able to earn official recognition.

“I thought it would be pretty cool because I thought it would be a good opportunity to do with my brother,” she said. “There’s a lot of cool activities.”

From Ian’s perspective, the addition of his sister has only improved his Scouting experience. “I was a little skeptical because it was me and my dad’s thing,” he said. “But when Tatum got in it was even more fun.”

That sentiment is echoed by Tuck Pescosolido, a den leader in Durham, New Hampshire. He told the AP that the boys have welcomed the girls with enthusiasm. He said that some of the newest female Cub Scouts in his community are friends of the boys in the pack, and the boys had recommended Scouting to them.

To read more about the thousands of girls that are already joining Cub Scouts, be sure to read the Associated Press article. And to learn more about Tatum and Ian’s adventures in Scouting, check out a story on the duo on Scouting Newsroom.

To learn more about some of the details on welcoming girls into the Cub Scout program, check out the Bryan on Scouting article on that topic, as well as the Family Scouting page on scouting.org.