Zoe Nevels celebrated her seventh birthday last week with lunch at American Girl, wearing a polka-dot dress, pink glasses and an orange headband to match the Bitty Baby doll that accompanied her.
The same afternoon, Zoe went hiking, climbed a tree, picked up litter and toasted marshmallows over a campfire with the Cub Scouts at Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville. When Zoe and her 5-year-old sister, Jada, had to leave, they asked when they could do it again.
The sisters are among the first participants in a new nationwide program that allows girls to join the Boy Scouts of America. That fundamental change in the makeup of the 108-year-old institution is sparking debate among feminists, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts over the best way to raise an active, confident girl.
Boy Scout officials point out that older girls have been allowed to join Boy Scout Exploring and Venturing programs for decades, with much success. They note that parents have long brought daughters along with their sons to selected Scout family camping trips, and they cite surveys in which 90 percent of parents said they wanted the option for girls to join.
Zoe’s mother, Amina Nevels, said she chose a Cub Scout pack in Oak Park for her girls after talking to other parents and deciding she preferred the outdoor activities and lessons this pack offered.
“I see all these parallels between the Boy Scouts and real-life skills,” she said. “It was a very deliberate choice to make them well-rounded.”
Not surprisingly, the Girl Scouts of the USA are less enthused. They say the Boy Scouts are recruiting from their organization to counter declining membership. They cite studies finding that girls can learn better in a single-sex setting with programs designed specifically for them, without competition or distraction from boys.
Already, the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois has seen a 2.5 percent decline in membership so far this year, when most new members join, CEO Fiona Cummings said.
“It’s a shame,” Cummings said of the change. “We feel disappointed that we’ve been partners for over 100 years, and we are now competitors, fighting to coexist.”
She gets annoyed by the perception that the Girl Scouts only sell cookies and do crafts. Besides swimming, kayaking, archery, BB guns and rappelling, the Girl Scouts offer high adventure trips like whitewater rafting, survival camping, canoeing and portaging in the boundary waters near Canada.
Girl Scouts also offer science and engineering-related activities like designing a slingshot and building a remote-operated underwater vehicle.
The Boy Scouts started a soft launch, allowing girls into about two-thirds of the organization’s councils at the beginning of the year. The change is showing “strong momentum” and an “overwhelmingly positive” response, attracting about 3,000 girls nationwide so far, spokesman Effie Delimarkos said.
She’s heard of girls who have joined Boy Scouts but remain active in Girl Scouts, and she hopes the groups can be complementary. Since both groups serve only a fraction of youths, she said there remains “a huge unmet need.”
Yet the Boy Scouts intend to expand their offerings for girls. Starting this summer, all Cub Scout councils for children aged 5 to 10 will be open to girls. Next year, girls aged 11 to 17 will be allowed entry to Boy Scouts, with the opportunity to reach the highest rank of Eagle Scout, which is known for requiring challenging projects and being valued by employers.
Nine-year-old Amelia Comoda, of River Forest, has gone on outings with her brother Justin, who’s a year younger, but joined the Boy Scouts formally for the campout last weekend. Her den is led by a woman and made up of just four girls, who christened themselves the She-Wolves.
Her father, James Comoda, said he felt the Boy Scouts offer more enriching activities, citing a previous meeting in which the boys planted seeds and learned how plants germinate. At the campout, he said, his daughter showed the boys how to cut up vegetables and Spam to make “Spamalot.”
As a disabled veteran with a wife going through chemotherapy, Comoda said Boy Scouts allows the family a chance to spend time together.
“Being the father of a girl in 2018, you want her to have every opportunity that your son has,” Comoda said.
The Girl Scouts emphasize studies that have shown Girl Scouts do better academically than their peers, and that both sexes can learn better in a same-gender environment.
Some Girl Scouts officials also pointed out that sexual abuse has been a recurring problem within the Boy Scouts, which that organization notes it has sought to address with a number of reforms. Girls in Boy Scouts will have separate dens or troops, always under adult supervision, and they will sleep in segregated areas during overnight camping trips.
But some Girl Scouts say they’re not interested in the Boy Scouts. Tess Vasil, a 17-year-old from Palos Heights, comes from a dual-Scout family. Her mom is her troop leader, her father is a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts, and she’s joined her two brothers on Boy Scout outings over the years. But as she’s gotten older, she’s grown less comfortable playing physical sports with competitive boys, and far prefers the Girl Scouts environment.
The most powerful experience of her life, she said, was the Girl Scouts’ Camp CEO, which brings in career women to mentor girls on choosing and navigating a successful career.
With input from their mentor, the girls put together a “Shark Tank”-like proposal for a business, learning how to refine and present their ideas, and went through mock job interviews.
This year, Tess plans to seek a Gold Award, which requires girls to create and execute sustainable projects to improve their communities.
She plans to tear down and rebuild the steps leading to two mobile homes outside St. Alexander Church in Palos Heights, which are used for Scouts, youth groups and meetings.
“I’ve gotten support from the Girl Scouts that I can’t get with my brothers,” she said. “I was embraced and entered this sisterhood. We all encouraged each other. It’s such a wonderful and loving environment.”
RELATED
‘It’s time’: Naperville, Fox Valley Boy Scouts welcome girls to join troops “
Boy Scouts to accept girls? Thanks but no thanks, respond many involved in Girl Scouts “
Editorial: On their honor, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts should settle their boundary issues “
![The Buffalo Grove Fire Department is investigating the cause of a blaze that broke out in a semi-tractor trailer truck Friday afternoon that was on The Clove construction site in the northwest suburb. The Clove is a sprawling $150 million redevelopment being built that is planned to include 297 luxury residences, retail and dining establishments, and park space. According to a village news release, at around 2:30 p.m. Friday, firefighters were called to the site, in the 200 block of McHenry Road, on a report of “a large garbage trailer on fire.” “Upon arrival, firefighters confirmed a large open top […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2024/01/19/I7PYHXMXHVCDHNWH5SMG3MEJNA.jpg?w=535 "The Buffalo Grove Fire Department is investigating the cause of a blaze that broke out in a semi-tractor trailer truck Friday afternoon that was on The Clove construction site in the northwest suburb. The Clove is a sprawling $150 million redevelopment being built that is planned to include 297 luxury residences, retail and dining establishments, and park space. According to a village news release, at around 2:30 p.m. Friday, firefighters were called to the site, in the 200 block of McHenry Road, on a report of “a large garbage trailer on fire.” “Upon arrival, firefighters confirmed a large open top […]")
