r By Deborah Goodman
Felice and Evan Clements of Springville created Pack 1456 nearly ten years ago and have experienced many changes along the way. However, this year has been the most memorable, as the pack has quadrupled their numbers in eight months after the Boy Scouts of America began admitting girls in January.
In October of 2017, the BSA announced the change, which was made in an effort to give more youth access to the character development and values-based leadership that scouting provides. They call it “Family Scouting.”
This change was highly anticipated, as reported by ScoutingNewsroom.org. “Recent surveys [2] of parents not involved with Scouting showed high interest in getting their daughters signed up for programs like Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, with 90 percent expressing interest in a program like Cub Scouts and 87 percent expressing interest in a program like Boy Scouts.”
Boys and girls can’t be in the same den, but there are eighteen girls in the pack, making a total of 42 boys and girls. Pack 1456 has members of the community from Santaquin to Pleasant Grove.
According to Felice, “The kids have had a really amazing time.” In fact, they’ve gotten so busy with so many new members, the Clements have had to implement some new policies: the group now has eight leaders and any new child who joins, their parent must become a den leader or assistant den leader.
A lot of the kids are dual registering, meaning they are involved in both their church unit and the private pack.
When asked about any unanticipated problems, Felice explains: “There are some girls with behavior issues because they hadn’t started in the program (as Tigers) in kindergarten. It’s been a learning curve for them to understand the rules and the respect required.”
Felice feels the change has been well received. “Some of the boys weren’t very excited to begin with. But they have embraced it now.”
Older girls will be able to form their own troops and earn the Eagle rank beginning in February 2019.
For more information or if you’d like your child to join, visit joinscouting.org to search for Pack 1456. They will also be having an informational parent meeting in the fall.
