A Northern Virginia girl will soon become one of the first female Eagle Scouts in history.
Katie Hunter of Vienna joined the Girl Scouts when she was little, but she always wanted to join her brothers in the Boy Scouts.
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“I was a little jealous that they got to do all these fun things like rock climbing and camping,” she said.
Last year, when Boy Scouts of America announced they would let girls join, Katie jumped at the chance.
“Part of me really wanted to prove that girls could do it just the same as boys could,” she said.
She’s been proving it for the past year and a half, racking up dozens of merit badges, mentoring younger scouts and doing an Eagle Scout project: She built garden boxes at a local elementary school.
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“All the girls are fantastic,” said her dad, Chris Hunter, who also is her troop leader. “It’s fun to watch girls have the same opportunity as the boys did.”
Two weeks ago, Katie finished the requirements to be an Eagle Scout, doing it in the fastest time allowed. That puts her in the first ever class of girls to rise to the top rank.
“I’m so excited,” Katie said. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for like years and I’m just so ecstatic that I get to be in that first group.”
She’s not quite sure when the ceremony will happen because the pandemic has gotten in the way of planning.
Historically, only about 6% of members have made it to Eagle Scout.
