WHERE & WHEN:
Scotts Valley City Hall, 1 Civic Center Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066
Friday Feb, 1st 7:00 a.m.
Flag raising ceremony
Girls from across the Bay Area are gearing up for February when the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will welcome girls into its most iconic program.
“I can’t wait to go camping, earn merit badges, and go on adventures with my friends,” said Naomi, a future Scout from Scotts Valley, CA.
Naomi and countless other girls will join local troops next month thanks to the BSA’s historic decision to open the Boy Scout program, which will soon be called Scouts BSA, to both boys and girls ages 11-17.
While Scouts BSA will welcome both boys and girls, it will not be a co-ed. Troops will be single-gender and will meet independently. Troop 614, sponsored by Scotts Valley Lions Club, is one of dozens of all-girl troops forming in the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay Areas.
“The experiences and skills that Scouting provides are incredibly valuable to all youth– not just boys. I’m honored to help offer this opportunity to the girls and young women in our community,” said Troop 614 adult volunteer leader Alan Randolph and Marisa Cawley.
Some of the girls who plan to join Troop 614 are coming from the BSA’s Cub Scout program, which opened to girls age 5-10 in 2018. Since then, more than 77,000 girls have joined the program, but the troop is also seeing interest from young women in the community who would be joining a BSA program for the first time.
“When I heard it would be possible for me to join Scouting and work to become an Eagle Scout, I knew I had to find a Scouts BSA troop to join,” explained Naomi. “I can’t wait for our troop’s adventures – this is something I have been excited to do for a long time.”
About the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, Boy Scouts of America
The Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, Boy Scouts of America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®” The local Scouting organization is composed of over 13,000 youth members between the ages of 5 and 21 and approximately 5,000 volunteers in the council service area of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.BeAScout.org to learn more.