West Michigan Teen Girl Becomes Inaugural Female Eagle Scout

On Sunday, Feb. 21, Scouts BSM will host a nationwide program honoring the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts. In the group will be a teen from West Michigan who is making history as one of the first females in the nation to become an Eagle Scout. 

Eagle Scout is the highest rank available in the Boys Scouts of America. The rank must be reached by age 18 and typically takes 6 years to achieve. April Bowlin of Muskegon was able to earn Eagle Scout status in just 2 years. Since the Boy Scouts of America's inception in 1911, only 4% of scouts have put in the work to earn the ranking of Eagle Scout.

April signed up for Boy Scouts in 2019 with the goal of becoming an Eagle Scout making her the 8th in her family to do so. This allows her to become one of the rare members of the nation's inaugural class of all female Eagle Scouts.

April told WZZM TV,

"I remember watching my older brother become an Eagle Scout and thought, 'Oh, that's cool, but I can't do that though' because I was a girl."

In February 2019, Scouts BSA, the program for youth 5th graders through high school, started welcoming girls into the organization. On becoming one of the first female Eagle Scouts, April said,

"It's a really cool thing that no one else can really say."

After completing many tasks associated with Boy Scouts like learning first aid to tying knots to attending outings to arduous endurance tests, April then set her sights on Eagle Scout. To complete the requirements, April had to finish a community-related endeavor that was planned and initiated entirely by the scout which she did by repairing a walkway behind St. Gregory's Episcopal Church.