Among plans for the all-girl Troop 1031 now that it’s been officially chartered as part of the Boy Scouts of America is preparation to compete in a First Aid Meet on Feb. 23 in Springfield.

“It’s another opportunity for young girls to get involved. It’s an opportunity for them to learn leadership skills. The focus is their duty to God, country, others and self and cheerful service in all of those aspects,” said Jennifer Wente, scoutmaster of the six girls in Troop 1031, which meets at the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Church, 1725 S. Walnut St.

Troop 1031 is among the first three all-female troops in the Springfield area to receive their charters Feb. 1 through Boy Scouts of America. The troops are part of the flagship program within the Boy Scouts of America for ages 11-18 formerly called “Boy Scouts.”

As of Feb. 1, the program became known as “Scouts BSA” to reflect the fact there are now all-girl troops and all-boy troops in the program. The name of the overall organization hasn’t changed.

“We are still the Boy Scouts of America,” said Daniel O’Brien, scout executive of the Abraham Lincoln Council, which oversees Boy Scouts programs in the Springfield area. Including his time as a youth, O’Brien has been involved with Boy Scouts of America for over 50 years.

“Working with young women is not new to the Boy Scouts of America," O'Brien said, noting BSA's longstanding Venturing, Sea Scouts and Exploring programs that are open to high school-aged boys and girls. "We’ve been doing it for a long time and with great success.”

With the new Scouts BSA programs, troops are either all boys or all girls.

“I had one call from an Eagle Scout (Scouting’s highest rank). He says, ‘Have you guys thought about this?’ What are you doing putting teenage boys and girls and hormones?’” O’Brien recalled. “We had a conversation, and I said, ‘Well. We have boy troops. We have girl troops. They are not co-ed troops.’”

O’Brien said Boy Scouts of America strives to serve families, and in doing so, gives young women leadership opportunities to build their character and to do things in keeping with the Scout Oath and Scout Law. They also have the opportunity to become Eagle Scouts.

Family matters

In addition to Troop 1031 at Blessed Sacrament, all-girl Scouts BSA Troops have been established at Springfield First United Methodist Church (Troop 1300), 2941 S. Koke Mill Road, and St. John’s Lutheran Church (Troop 38), 2477 W. Washington St.

St. John's Lutheran also hosts Cub Scout Pack 38, which became the first local Cub Scout pack to admit elementary-school-aged girls a year ago.

Wente helped organize Troop 1031.

“My son (Adam, 14) is in Boy Scouts. He started out in Cub Scouts when he was in first grade. He is now in eighth grade ... so I have been involved ever since he started back in first grade,” Wente said.

“I went from a den leader with the pack that he was involved in to the cubmaster, which was the person that kind of oversaw the entire pack, and then in the middle of fifth grade when he crossed over to the Boy Scout Troop 31 at Blessed Sacrament, I followed him over and was part of the committee. I’m still currently their treasurer, so I have been involved for a number of years.”

Wente’s daughter — Allison, 11, a sixth-grader — has followed along and has seen everything her brother had done in the past, Wente said.

“So, when the BSA announced that they were going to allow girls, then it was full steam ahead, and I said, ‘OK. What do we need to do in order to make this troop happen?’ ”

Allison tried Girl Scouts, Wente said.

“Girl Scouts, 4-H all of those — they’re all wonderful programs. This is just something new. It’s just another opportunity. She has really looked at the Boy Scouts just because their focus is so much on the outdoors,” Wente said.

“They have a lot of opportunities to camp and hike, and that’s really what she was looking for, and of course, she saw her brother do all of those things, and to go to summer camp where he could do swimming and kayaking and shooting sports, so there’s all kinds of opportunities.

“The fact that this has opened up to girls is just another opportunity for youth to get involved and be involved in something where they’re not just sitting at home, hopefully, playing video games or looking at their phones.”

Not 'in the right arena'

Pam Kovacevich, chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois, has said that the all-girl environment of Girl Scouts helps girls develop character and the confidence they need to become leaders. She called the chartering of all-female troops in Scouts BSA “disappointing.”

“We love the Boy Scout organization — for boys. We just don’t think they’re in the right arena in adding the girls to that mix,” Kovacevich said.

“The BSA argument was that this was more family friendly, and it allowed little sisters to join their brothers in the Scouting experience," she added. "Well, we have done those joint family-type of experiences for decades, and we called the boys ‘tagalongs’ when they joined their sisters in our programming. But because Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts both have a national charter that was issued by Congress, we continue to honor our girls-only platform, and we will continue to do that.”

Girl Scouts offers outdoor activities as do Boy Scouts, Kovacevich said.

“When we heard that argument the first time, we actually did some comparative data analysis, and the Girl Scouts actually have more outdoor and high-adventure badge and patch opportunities than Boy Scouts do,” Kovacevich said.

“On a council level, we offer many outdoor activities, and most recently, this past summer, added 30 additional outdoor badges.”

Kovacevich said that for decades Girl Scouts’ safety record has been "impeccable."

“We’ve done background checks on our leaders. Our safety record is impeccable. We want to continue that for our girls,” Kovacevich said. “I don’t think we have the same care being given on the other side of the membership organization as the Girl Scouts do, and so, we pride ourselves on that, and we won’t go backward in that area.”

O’Brien said the Boy Scouts have “great respect for the Girl Scouts and any organization that is serving and helping develop leadership and character in young people.”

“We do background checks. We do reference checks and look at people in many ways, as well as require nationally recognized youth protection training for all of our adult volunteers,” O’Brien said.

“There’s lots of kids that are being unserved by any organization. We’re looking just to meet the needs of today’s families.

“It’s exciting times, and we’re thrilled with what’s happening.”

Contact Tamara Browning: tamara.browning@sj-r.com, 788-1534, twitter.com/tambrowningSJR.