Since the announcement was made last year to allow girls to join Cub and Boy Scouts nationally, several local groups are making the transition.

Greene County’s lone Cub Scout Pack 534 recently made the change and held their first joint event of the new scouting year with a grill out at Spring Lake Park. Cub Scout Master Chad Stevens says about eight girls have signed up so far. One of those new members is seven-year-old Poppy Wetrich. She explains why she wanted to join the Cub Scouts. “I wanted to start Cub Scouts because my mom told me it was going to be really fun because I like doing stuff to earn stuff.”

Stevens says he was excited when he first learned about the change because he has a daughter who always did Cub Scout activities and she always wanted to join. Now she has the opportunity to do just that. Poppy’s mother, Toni Wetrich, thinks it’s a great idea to have girls join the Cub and Boy Scouts.

“My brother was a Boy Scout, so I got to vicariously experience some of the things that he was doing and it always seemed like fun also. So I was just excited that it was another opportunity for kids to be able to join, girls or boys.”

Stevens points out that they’ve always had at least two adults at every activity, but now that girls can participate, there must be at least one male and one female at every activity if there are boys and girls participating. For Stevens, scouting is all about parental involvement, even before girls were allowed to join.

“We don’t want you to just come here and drop your kids off. We really want the whole family to be involved. Some of these kids are still younger yet, and we need all the help we can get sometimes. What’s a better thing to do than spend some time with your kids having a scouting experience.”

Soon girls will be able to join Boy Scouts, which is now known as Scouts BSA, in February. Thirteen-year-old Bella Linberg of Jefferson intends to join the local Scout Troop 534 and describes what she’s looking forward to the most.

“I really look forward to going on campouts and doing fun activities, while we do different activities.”

For those interested in joining the Cub Scouts, Pack 534 meets the first Mondays of the month at the Jefferson Elks Lodge at 6:30pm. You can also call Stevens at 712-830-7794.