The First Wave of Girls Goes to Camp with the Boy Scouts
by Alexander Richey
For decades, vans full of Boy Scouts have traveled up the side of Lookout Mountain, past switchbacks and along the edges of Desoto State Park to make it to Camp Comer Scout Reservation. For that week, the boys trade church basements and civic centers for climbing towers and rifle ranges out in the woods. But this year is different. There are girls at boy scout camp. On this day, a group of about two dozen boys and one girl are preparing to shoot at the rifle range during free time.
Tommie Morgan oversees the range at Camp Comer and gets the group’s attention.
“Alright, gentlemen. There is a lady on the range,” said Morgan.
He’s referring to 14-year-old Olivia Holmes. She’s among the first crop of girls to come to Camp Comer and participate as full-fledged scouts.
“You respect women. You respect women at all times,” Morgan says to the young scouts. “We are going to let the lady shoot before y’all. You always put a woman in front of you. You understand me?”
The boys respond with an enthusiastic “Yes, sir.”
As of May, 64 girls have joined scouting across North Alabama. Holmes says she’s gotten some pointed reactions from other scouts.
“Well, I got asked two times, ‘Is that a girl?’ And another kid said, ‘Yeah, she’s not supposed to be here,’” said Holmes. “That kinda got me mad, but I kinda sorta expected that kind of stuff.”
Alexander Richey
Girls earned merit badges alongside boys this summer at Camp Comer.
Malinda Holmes, Olivia’s mother, is a troop leader. She also has two sons in scouts. Since Boy Scouts of America announced last year it will admit girls into more programs, there has been a strong backlash. Holmes says misconceptions have fueled some of that. Some, for example, worry girls and boys will be in the same troop.
“Some of the information they have is wrong,” Holmes says. “They’re not coed. They’re independent.”
Boy troops and girl troops may meet in the same places, but participate in separate meetings. Many of the facilities at Camp Comer have been retrofitted to accommodate both genders. The bathhouses were once big rooms with flimsy plastic curtains between the showers. Now, metal doors have been installed to provide individual private showers.
Some might ask why not just join Girl Scouts? The organizations share similar routes, but have vastly different programs. Many girls say Girl Scouts lacks many of the opportunities Boy Scouts of America offers, including the opportunity to earn the prestigious Eagle Scout rank. That’s a big draw for parent Matt Garrett.
“I think a lot of the girls who have joined, especially the older ones, they’re like 15 or 16, thats their draw,” Garrett says. “They want to pursue Eagle. They want to get the rank of Eagle, because it does have some weight to it.”
Garrett is an Eagle Scout just like his father. He hopes his sons and daughters will be one day, too.
“I always said my daughters were better Scouts than my sons ‘cause they were always, ‘Let’s go camping! Let’s do the hike!’, leading the way kind of thing,” Garrett says beside his daughter’s tent. “Now they have an opportunity to.”
Teen campers Chase Guida and Christian Graley are working on some Bugle Calls along the lake near the amphitheater. They’ve been in Scouts for a few years. Christian says he tries not to focus on the fact that girls are around.
“I mean, I try not to pay attention to it,” Graley says. “I mean, my first encounter was just like, in class and I was like, being my dumb little self. Band kid. You know how it is. And I just said, ‘hey’, and we just carried on a normal conversation. And that was the end of it.”
Guida is a bit more smooth with his interactions. He thinks the concerns about girls changing the scouting program are exaggerated.
“People overhype it alot,” Guida says. “Like, I mean, they all talk about these catastrophic stuff that’s going to happen, and I mean, obviously, I don’t think any of that stuff is going to happen. I don’t think it’s going to be that bad.”
By the end of camp, Olivia completed all her requirements for her merit badge classes and now has a total of 10. Her older brother is just a few months away from earning his Eagle Scout rank.
Olivia’s mother Malinda hopes her daughter follows in his footsteps.
“The girls aren’t going to change scouting,” Holmes says. “Scouting is what scouting is, and scouting is a wonderful opportunity.”
Holmes says from where she sits, she only sees positives to having her daughter in the Boy Scouts.
Trump admin tells judge man wrongly deported to El Salvador is alive, still detained
On Friday, federal judge Paula Xinis had ordered the Trump administration to provide daily updates to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Intellectually disabled teen shot by Idaho police dies after being removed from life support
An autistic, nonverbal teenage boy who was shot repeatedly by Idaho police from the other side of a chain link fence while he was holding a knife died Saturday after being removed from life support, his family said.
Smartphones and computers are now spared from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs
The exemption comes amid worries of how President Trump's steep new tariffs will affect American tech companies that rely on supply chains in China, like Apple.
Federal judge orders USDA to unfreeze funds to Maine
The funds had been initially withheld following President Trump's clash with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue of transgender athletes.
Ukraine’s DIY drone makers are helping fighters on the front lines
The war in Ukraine is now largely being fought with drones. Ukraine made 2 million last year. Drone makers churn them out in factories and mom-and-pop operations like one in a Kyiv basement apartment.
‘The lawn giveth and the lawn taketh away’: Photos from the 41st Annapolis Cup
The yearly competition between the small liberal arts college lauded for its "great books" curriculum and the famed school for naval officer training began in the early 1980s. Several attendees recounted the legend that a discussion between a St. John's College student and the Commandant of the Naval Academy led to the latter's challenge that his midshipmen could beat Johnnies at any sport.
