Leechburg Scouting America troop sees 1st girls cross over from Cub Scouts to newly co-ed troop

Lydia Cummings and Ivy McCollough on Sunday became the first girls in Leechburg to move from Cub Scouts to Scouting America, the official new name for Boy Scouts of America since early this month.

The two became friends in Cub Scouts and were eager to participate in a ceremony officially marking the jump to the Scouting organization for older kids. Though several girls already are participating in a Scouting America troop in the community, the pair were the first to join such an event to transition them to Scouting America, where they would join both girls and boys.

Lydia, 11, and Ivy, 10, said they didn’t want one to cross the ceremonial bridge — an actual wooden span — before the other. Maybe one would give the other a piggyback ride, they joked. Lydia offered to hoist Ivy on her shoulders.

Ultimately, the two settled on holding hands as they crossed the span, the key moment in Sunday’s event at the Marconi Club in Leechburg. The pair joined five of their male counterparts in moving from Cub Scouts to a troop meant for older kids.

The five-member girls troop in Scouting America launched in August, said Jessica Cummings, who runs the troop and is Lydia’s mother.

They’re linked to the boys troop — meaning, the boys and girls who formed friendships in Cub Scouts can stay together in their older Scouting years.

Cub Scouts is for kids up to age 11. After that, they traditionally split for Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. But since Boy Scouts began accepting girls in 2019, they no longer have to go their separate ways.

“It wasn’t fair the girls do all this time with their classmates and then they have to go somewhere else with new kids they don’t know,” said Cummings, 45, of Leechburg.

Her daughter said she was excited to make the jump to the older Scout troop. She and Ivy had talked about crossing that bridge together for years.

The most exciting part of Sunday’s ceremony was “getting to cross the bridge with her,” Ivy said, pointing to Lydia.

Adam Spiering, 46, of Gilpin, who serves as scoutmaster for the boys group and assistant troop master for the girls, said some people were initially wary of allowing girls into what had long been a boys-only club. Some feared it would force the Scouts to relax their standards.

But that’s not been the case, Spiering said.

“They want to do the same things the boys want to do,” he said. “The girls in Boy Scouts are not here to change the program.”

The girls, he said, are keeping up just fine.

“It’s just the next step to keeping Scouting in Leechburg,” he said.

The logistics are sometimes challenging, Cummings acknowledged. Men or women can take the boys on trips, but a woman is required to take the girls for trips, she said. Since there aren’t many female volunteers in the area, most of that falls to Cummings.

“Everybody is in agreement that it’s a great thing in theory,” she said. “The inner workings are a little more difficult than I expected.”

But the integration means girls such as her daughter can learn the same skills and engage in the same activities as the boys.

They participated in the same ceremony to graduate from Cub Scouts. The ceremony urges the young Scouts to vow to be trustworthy, obedient and brave, among other attributes critical to the organization. They promised to set an example for others.

Cummings painted stripes on their face to represent Scout law and their path toward Eagle Scout before the kids walked across a wooden bridge to join the older Scouts who were waiting to welcome them on the other side.

Greeting the girls was JoHannah Grossheim, 12, of Spring Church, senior patrol leader for the female Scouting America troop.

“I’m pretty much just welcoming them to the troop,” she said before participating in the ceremony, which included her knotting kerchiefs around the younger girls’ necks.

This next step, she said, will mark more responsibility for the Scouts. In Cub Scouts, adults planned everything and took the lead. But now, the Scouts will be asked to take on more responsibility.

“Scouts is supposed to be a Scout-run thing,” she explained.

After the ceremony wrapped up, the Scouts signed their names on the bridge they just crossed. The girls found a rail that didn’t have signatures yet and declared it the new girls’ section.