For years, twin sisters Fiona and Lauren Quick heard stories from the neighborhood Boy Scouts about really cool camping trips, crazy outdoor adventures and catching and cooking a rattlesnake.

The girls wanted in, but Boy Scouts was only for boys.

That all changed this year when the nationwide organization welcomed the opposite sex.

The next step for the Sunland home-schooled 15-year-olds was inevitable.

Their chance had arrived.

They, like thousands of girls across the country, joined Scouts BSA.

“When I heard the news, it was shocking they were going to allow girls in. I said, ‘Yes I’m doing that, sign me up’,” Laura Quick said.

Since the Feb. 1 announcement, female membership has been taking off with 11,000-plus new girls between ages of 11 years old and 17 years old and 77,000 girls nationally in the age bracket of 5 years old to 10 years old, according to Scout BSA officials.

The Quick sisters joined five other girls ranging in ages 11 years old to 16 years old to form the North Hollywood-based Troop 88, out of The Church of Scientology of the Valley.

One of their first challenges was to prepare for “Camporee,” a multi-level competition held at Verdugo Oaks Camp near Castaic Lake March 8 through March 10.

The goal was to make history in an endurance-skill competition and beat 20 other patrols primarily comprised of all-boy teams already experienced in scouting skills. They rose to the occasion, topping numnerous categories in what officials called “unprecedented” fashion.

Troop 88 needed to turn poles and ropes into survival structures relying on knot-tying and lashings.

An injured “patient” needed to be carried up and down hills on a gurney they put together to finish in front of their competitors.

Using maps and a compass had to become second nature.

Scoutmaster Cartney Wearn, who for years produced winning all-boy troops, trained Troop 88 for the six-segment competition.

“The formula of success for these girls was that they were very focused, very tenacious and also very smart and cool under pressure,” Wearn said. “They kept their cool, performed well and showed in the moment that they can execute the skills they had learned under pressure and under tight time constraints. Of all the troops I put into competition, I would put them in the top three.”

Wearn said the difference between the sexes in how they handle the competition was subtle.

“Boys bark at each other to get things done faster,” he said. “These girls, after locating the source of the problem …. figured out who was best suited for the challenge of tieing a particular knot, for example, or performing a particular first-aid (task).”

Troop 88 built the largest pyramid fire and won their heat in emergency first aid, according to Tracey Andruscavage, a volunteer and charter organization representative with Scouts BSA who establishes new troops and coordinates the scouting program.

“When it came time to hand out the overall awards for the Camporee and all of the points across the competition were tallied, the girls of Troop 88 were stunned to learn that they had tied for first place and had won the Presidential Award for the entire Camporee. It was unprecedented,” Andruscavage said.

Andruscavage added that the most coveted recognition, the troop with the best scout spirit, also went to Troop 88.

In the six separate competitions they placed three times, winning a first-, a second- and a third-place ribbon.

Fiona Quick said one of the most challenging aspects of the competition was the short period of time they had to train.

“Everything was relatively new to us. We were freaking out that we didn’t know enough,” Fiona said. “In the end, we did pretty well, but the last day or two before Camporee it was like, ‘Oh. Do we know everything? It’s here. It’s time’.”

Callahandra “Calli” Edison, also a member of Troop 88, is 13, homeschooled and lives in Tujunga. She too was never a Girl Scout and shared the same sentiment as the Quick sisters about girl scouting not being as challenging and as much fun as Boy Scouts.

Calli believes the skills she is learning, like leadership and working as a group, will always stick with her.

“I feel scouting will help no matter what profession I choice,” said Calli, a lover of writing, singing, acting and astronomy. “Scouting is about leadership skills … getting involved in the community.”

Calli admitted during the Camporee competition her peers didn’t know if they knew enough or practiced enough to succeed because they hadn’t been at it very long like a majority of their competitors.

“We had to hope that it was good enough and it was,” Calli said. “It took a lot of hard work.”