Troop 164 rewrites history

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“Its hard to tell your children that they can’t do something,” Troop 164 Scoutmaster, Marla Ekola, said.

Marla Ekola is penciling in her daughter’s future. Re-writting a tradition if you will.

Troop 164 is making history. They’re a part of Scouts BSA, formally known as Boy Scouts of America.

“I think that’s actually a really good idea,” said Ekola.

And for Heather Koenemann the idea was as good as ever.

“I’m really excited I’ve always wanted to be a boy scout ever since my brother joined cub scouts,” said Koenemann.

Study after study shows Boy Scout membership continues to fall. Some blame the LDS church for leaving. That alone made numbers drop to 18.5 percent. As of right now 5,000 girls are enrolled nationally, which has increased membership by .4 percent.

“I wanted to do a bunch of camping and the girl scouts don’t tend to do that stuff as much,” said Koenemann.

Girl Scout representative Kristen Schrider said that’s a false narrative.

“They just do girl stuff, they do cooking, they do crafts. And our activities are just as bold as anyone else’s,” said Schrider.

But to be clear, while girls are now part of Scouts, girls still meet separately from the boys.

“But if we fail to provide those spaces for girls then we are not going to have those opportunities for girls to try new things without worrying about what other people are thinking,” said Schrider.

But for troop 164 the controversy is the least of their worries.

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