Troop 223G Hosts Inaugural Court of Honor for Female Eagle Scouts

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Troop 223G hosted its inaugural Eagle Court of Honor for the first group of 12 girls earning their Eagle Scout Award in a ceremony that took place Sunday, June 13, at St. Matthew’s Church.

The dozen girls who earned their Eagle Scout Award joined when scouting in the Troop was first made available to girls on February 1, 2019, Scoutmaster Mike Lanning explained to the Palisadian-Post. Troop 223, which operates with the vision of “young people leading skillfully, making good choices, serving others,” now hosts both a Boys Troop and a Girls Troop.

When they joined, 10 of the girls were in eighth-grade and two were in ninth grade, which is about three years older than what is typical of the Troop.

Their first activity was a summer camp at Catalina for a week where they led a Troop of 30 girls. During the first summer, they took a backpack and ocean kayaking trip in Alaska.

“They really distinguished themselves,” Lanning said of the trip, which included kayaking and hiking through high winds and rains.

Then, due to COVID-19 guidelines, the girls led the Troop via Zoom for a year, including helping younger girls and teaching skills. In 2020 they did a 10-day trip through Yosemite, which featured scaling Half Dome.

Those who received Eagle Scout Awards on June 13 were Ruby Rose Marie Carlson, Sophie E. Davidson, Ana-Sofia Fouquette, Sydney Marula Maslow, Madeline Milam, Chloé Leila Moshrefi, Jennifer Louise Pitcher, Adelaide Saab, Lauren Elaine Seidel, Ashley Faith Traboulsi, Avamehr Vaghaiwalla and Katherine Jane Walker.

The program was identical to what the boys Troop goes through, which usually takes four-plus years. This particular group of girls were able to do it in about two and a half years, according to Scoutmaster Larry Kirven, who leads the girls Toop.

Projects included collecting items for food banks, a toy drive and documenting more than 2,000 gravestones of veterans into Billion Graves database so that relatives and loved ones could locate and view a photograph of a service member’s gravestone from anywhere in the world.

“We were dealing with COVID during this time, so the normal Eagle projects really usually have some sort of building aspect—bookshelves or furniture or that sort of thing—that are then given to nonprofits that need the help,” Kirven explained. “This particular year, a lot of the projects dealt with collecting items and making sure those items were delivered to the appropriate nonprofits.”

Each project involved approximately 125 hours, 100 from others members and at least 25 on their own. One of the aspects of the project is to make sure the Eagle candidate is providing appropriate leadership by having other Troop members in her workforce.

“One of the hallmarks of the Troop are the advancement to the rank of Eagle,” Lanning said of Troop 223. “Every scout that stays in Troop 223 becomes an Eagle—that’s the truth.”

Their final act in the Troop will be to led the annual camp at Catalina, which will be for 60 girls this year, as the Troop has doubled in size.

Over the course of its history, Troop 223 has advanced more than 800 Scouts to the rank of Eagle—more than any other in the nation. The Troop Eagled the largest group of female Scouts in the country.

“They’re smart, they’re tough, they’re mature, they’re wonderful,” Lanning said.

The Troop meets Monday nights at St. Matthew’s. Those who are interested in joining the girls can reach out to Christy Lowe at lowe.christy@gmail.com. For the boys, contact Greg Frost at frostfamily@frostinvestigations.com.