Boy Scouts now accept girls but membership is lacking
Scouts BSA — formerly known as the Boy Scouts — is recruiting girls to join its ranks. (Photos by Alex Dominguez)
DOWNEY — Following their official inclusion just a few years ago, Scouts BSA is looking to establish more girl troops in Downey and the surrounding areas.
The Boy Scouts officially transitioned to Scouts BSA in 2019, opening the door to girls between the ages of 11 to 17. The organization's first female eagle scouts followed soon after, with the first class recognized in 2020.
However, be it due to the pandemic or some predisposed attitude about girls in scouts, the local Scouts BSA Pio Pico District has not seen the growth of girl troops that it had hoped.
The Pio Pico District encompasses Artesia Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Cerritos, Commerce, Compton, Cudahy, Downey, East Los Angeles, Hawaiian Gardens, Huntington Park, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Norwalk, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, South Gate, Vernon, Walnut Park, and Whittier.
Tom Hutchinson, a 30-year scout leader and member of the Pio Pico District Leadership, says the district is trying to “fill the program out.”
“At this point, we’re trying to get reinvigorated and get recruiting and the flow of scouts and families moving along,” said Hutchinson. “And kind of reboot a little bit for us here the idea of promoting the girls into cub scouts, which is the elementary school level, and for the traditional scouting program for the ones who are 11-17.”
So far, the district has only been able to muster four female troops.
One of those troops - Troop 2019 in Whittier - is led by Scoutmaster Virginia Wetzel. Wetzel says that many, especially in the older crowd, still have “negative attitudes about girls being in boy scouts.”
“They say, ‘There’s Girl Scouts.’ Well, Girl Scouts has a great program for a certain type of girl; as a matter of fact, I have four boy scouts, who are also girl scouts,” said Wetzel. “That tells you how different the programs are.”
Wetzel has 17 girls as a part of her troop. She says that every one has a sibling “in some unit or another.”
“We just can’t seem to get the girls outside of that into scouting,” said Wetzel. “I think if you look at the program, you need a girl who is willing to do outdoor stuff. That’s a big part of boy scouts. It’s not as big in girl scouts; some units do, but most units don’t.”
Laurel Miller, 17, joined the scouts in February 2019 and is working her way towards Eagle rank. She says she watched her brother – now an Eagle Scout - “go out and have fun with his friends” as a scout before her.
“I used to make fun of him because of it because I was kind of jealous, to be honest, of him having so much fun,” said Miller. “When my dad first told me ‘There’s a scout opportunity,’ I jumped at it.”
Miller feels that the advertising of BSA’s inclusion of girls could be improved.
“When everyone hears of scouts and girls in scouts, they just think of Girl Scouts, with selling cookies and everything like that; and that’s not bad, I’m not dissing the Girl Scouts or anything like that,” said Miller. “We don’t really explain it as much, what we do, what activities we do.
“People really have this first image that pops in their head and they don’t find the interest in it.”
According to Wetzel, the girls do “everything the boys do.”
“We’ve done the rock climbing. We’ve done the snow sport merit badge. We’ve done all the camping trips the boys have done, white water rafting, all of that,” said Wetzel. “But they’re still girls, so we do a lot of cooking…A lot of boy scout troops, not all of them, do a lot of hot dogs, hamburgers; We do actual cooking. My scouts want real food.”
She added that the troop is very much into the “girly things” as well as the typical boy scout activities.
Miller says it’s the relationships made that matter the most.
“I would like to see that families come in with a sort of mindset that ‘My kid doesn’t have to go through the ranks and become Eagle immediately, the mindset of making memories for my kid, having these friendships is more important than advancing through the ranks,” said Miller. “Yeah, Eagle is important, but at the same time nurturing the youth of these kids is far more important.”
Wetzel hopes to bring in more troops soon.
“I am the only troop in this area…I’d like a little competition; I’d like another troop. I’d like to see more girls out there competing,” said Wetzel. “I’d like to see more troops; I’d like to see more girls in scouting.”
