11 St. Louis area scouts among the first female Eagle Scouts
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ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOV) — 17-year old Maggie Pennington jumped at the chance nearly two years ago when the Boy Scouts program was re-branded as Scouts BSA and young women were invited to join for the first time.
“I’m very grateful for all the opportunities Scouts BSA has given me and I definitely recommend it to any family,” said Pennington.
Pennington said she and her sister were already involved in the scouting program called “Venturing” but she looked forward to more opportunities to hike, camp and develop leadership skills. Eleven female scouts from the Greater St. Louis Area Council are among the nearly 1,000 in the first class of female Eagle Scouts. Their achievement was celebrated Sunday night in an online broadcast that included a congratulatory word from CBS Evening News anchor Nora O’Donnell.
“I want to say a big congratulations to the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts,” O’Donnell said.
Maggie’s father, Jon Pennington, said his daughter was perfect for Scouts BSA.
“I grew up in scouting, and was involved in the mentoring program with Maggie and her other sister. And when the opportunity came up for her to go into Scouts BSA and earn her Eagle Scout, I thought that was completely a great idea and supported it completely,” he said.
One of the requirements to be an Eagle Scout is to complete a community service project. For hers, Maggie said she built a wooden bridge for kindergartners to use on the playground at her church in Kirkwood. She also built 58 floating candle holders for a youth missions trip. Only 6% of scouts will earn the rank of Eagle Scout and Maggie is among the first young women to reach that accomplishment.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, I’m still in awe about it. It kind of seems unreal,” said Pennington.
Individual ceremonies will be held to mark the achievement of the eleven female Eagle Scouts locally.
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