February begins a new chapter for one of the long time institutions in the nation.
Next month girls are being welcomed into the Boy Scouts of America chapters, there's a new name as well, Scouts BSA.
Leanna Holzem is a spokesperson for the Samoset Council office located in Weston....
"..starting Feb. 1, the Boy Scouts of America nationwide is introducing the Scouts BSA program which was formerly known as the Boy Scouts. Girls are being allowed into the Boy Scout program...."
Holzem says the program will not be co-ed, with just a couple of exceptions..
"...There's been a lot of rumor, or speculation, that it's going to be a co-ed program. But like our Cub Scout program it is not, it's going to remain single gender. So the troops are going to stay as either all girl troops or all boy troops There may be the occasional overlap as they are linked together, where they would have special events together. Other than that, all of their activities, adventures, merit badge opportunities, camping, things like that are going to remain single gender..."
Some of the girls who plan to join all-girl troops are coming from the BSA's Cub Scouts program which opened to girls ages 5-10 last year. Since then, more than 71,000 have joined the program nationwide. 1,200 acre Camp Tesomas north of Rhinelander remains a core facility for the Samoset Council. It serves more than 3,000 campers each year.
More information is available at Scouts BSA Samoset Council office in Weston. They have a website.
