The Eagle Scout Award is the highest honor available to youth members of Scouting America. Achieving the Eagle Scout rank represents dedication to Scouting, the development of leadership skills and a commitment to serving one’s community.
To attain the rank of Eagle Scout, a scout must progress through five preceding ranks: Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life. Each rank involves fulfilling specific requirements and earning merit badges.
Upon completing these ranks, scouts must undertake an Eagle Scout project, which offers scouts an opportunity to demonstrate leadership while completing a community service initiative.
According to the Boy Scouts of America Chester County Council, only 4 percent of youth who join Scouting achieve the Eagle rank.
Chapel Hill seniors Genevieve Lithgow and Rebecca Rimon are now part of that distinguished 4 percent.
Lithgow and Rimon joined Chapel Hill’s Scout Troop 835 when they were 13 and 12 years old respectively. Prior to February 1, 2019, girls were not permitted to join scouts. There was a clear distinction between Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts until public discourse highlighted that many girls believed Boy Scouts offered broader opportunities and real-world learning experiences.
“I joined around this time, back in 2019, when girls were officially allowed to join,” Rimon shared. “I think it is a really valuable experience, regardless of gender, especially if you enjoy spending time outside and want to meet people with similar interests.”
Scouting America provides a platform for boys and girls to engage in outdoor adventures, develop service skills through community work and enhance leadership abilities through various projects and activities.
Eagle Scout projects often take up to a year to complete. Rimon finished her project at the end of 2023, collaborating with the owner of Carolina North Forest. “I started my planning in December of 2022, and I decided to build a pollinator garden. I reached out to UNC and the owner of Carolina North, and they helped fund my project,” Rimon said.
Lithgow also partnered with Carolina North Forest for her Eagle Scout project.
“I completed my Eagle project this summer by making and installing signs and QR codes about ticks and tick safety in Carolina North Forest. I tried to make the QR codes like a look-and-find for kids who are hiking with their families,” Lithgow explained. “I wanted to do this project after my grandma developed an allergy to red meat from a tick bite, and I wanted to prevent that situation for others.”
Assistant Scoutmaster Ruth Heaton has been involved with Troop 835 for 14 years and served as the girls’ Scoutmaster when the Boy Scouts of America first allowed girls to join.
“I was the girls’ Scoutmaster in our functionally coed Boy Scout troop for six years. Now we are part of a national pilot program for Boy Scouts to test coed Scouting, so we are considered a ‘combined troop,’” Heaton explained.
Heaton emphasized the significance of working with scouts throughout their formative years. “I love working with the kids. They are creative, interesting and often hilarious, and it’s fun to watch them grow into their personalities,” she said. “Many Scouts—including Rebecca and Genevieve—join when they are 11 or 12, and, at 18, they graduate out. There’s a lot of interesting change in those six years.”
While scouting emphasizes activities such as camping and volunteering, it also offers a unique social environment where youth can acquire practical skills.
John Lithgow, Genevieve’s father, noted that his daughter gained invaluable leadership experience through scouting, especially because the girls’ troop was newly formed. “She got experience that was much more practical and effective than similar leadership training might have been,” he said. “She is a better planner, speaker, listener, teacher and problem solver than she would otherwise be.”
As the first two girls in Troop 835, Rimon and Lithgow have demonstrated exemplary leadership. Heaton described them as “intrepid explorers in new terrain” who helped establish a meaningful place for girls in scouting.
“It was brave of them to be the first to do this in what was, for many years, a tiny group of girls in a vast sea of boys,” Heaton said.
