2 Members Of All-Girl Scout Troop Earn Eagle Scout Status

MOUNT PLEASANT, NY — Mount Pleasant Troop 125 held its first Eagle Scout Court of Honor Saturday, and it was an important day for everybody, together with honorees Eleanor Dempsey of Hawthorne and Jane Olszewski of Thornwood.

Troop 125 is an all-girl troop inside Scouts BSA. It was based Feb. 1, 2019 — the primary day that ladies have been allowed to hitch Scouts BSA. The troop was one of many first three all-girl troops based that day in Westchester County.

Olszewski is among the founding members. She wished to comply with within the footsteps of her older brother who achieved the rank of Eagle and her twin brother who was on his method to Eagle. (She ended up beating her twin brother to realize the rank of Eagle earlier than he did.)

With her brothers deeply concerned in scouting and a mom who was each a den chief and the cubmaster of Hawthorne Pack One, Olszewski had tagged alongside to scouting occasions because the age of three. She was overjoyed to be taught that ladies may be a part of Scouts BSA and could not wait to get began.

Her mom, Laura Michalec Olszewski, grew to become the Scoutmaster.

“A little bit of trivia as to the origin of ‘125’. In order to form a troop, we needed a minimum of five girls. A meeting for those interested in being founding members of an all-female troop within Scouts BSA was held on Jan. 25, 2019 so that we could hit the ground running,” Laura Michalec Olszewski advised Patch. “At that meeting we discussed logistics and the need for a name for our troop. ‘Mount Pleasant’ was chosen to attract girls from all of the towns and school districts within Mount Pleasant. ‘125’ was chosen to commemorate the fateful day of our first gathering as a group. The rest is history.”

Dempsey can also be a founding member. She joined the troop in August 2019 on the urging of three of its members. She additionally adopted within the footsteps of her older brother. In an extremely tight timeline she achieved the rank of Eagle in 2 years and 9 months — finishing 21 benefit badges and an Eagle project.

Olszewski accomplished 31 benefit badges (10 greater than is required to earn the rank of Eagle) and an Eagle project.

Their initiatives offered a double dose of enhancements at Westlake High School in Thornwood, the place they’re seniors.

For her Eagle Scout project, Dempsey tackled the auditorium the place she spent many hours on stage since sixth grade, and which is in fixed use by the highschool, center college, and the neighborhood.

Coordinating about two dozen volunteers, she led the portray of a mural on the auditorium wall and renovated a central show case outdoors the theater. She additionally labored with the neighborhood to analysis the historical past of previous Westlake exhibits and lined the partitions of the auditorium with enlarged, framed playbills from musicals carried out within the space since 1969.

Olszewski undertook the herculean project of organizing and modernizing the costume storage space to learn the theatre program she has carried out with since center college. She designed and applied a computer-based stock and organizational system for the costumes.

After recruiting and main a crew of volunteers to catalogue and manage 1000’s of costume items, customers can now seek for costume items by dimension, type, and period thus serving to tons of of pupil thespians look their finest onstage.

She advised Patch:

I wished to create a scout troop for women as a result of I believed it was one of the best ways for us to get began in scouting, with all individuals new to scouting and studying collectively. I wished to hitch scouting as a result of it has at all times been part of my life, and I like the outside, so it simply felt just like the pure conclusion when the chance arose. Scouting has been an exquisite journey. From tenting to creating new buddies, to studying new issues and educating the youthful scouts, I’ve loved each little bit of it. We began the troop with 5 ladies, the minimal required to create a troop, and finally had round 10 ladies registered to the troop. Right now we’ve 5 individuals, however we nonetheless plan on increasing and reaching out to younger individuals who may be . The neighborhood has all been very welcoming. Every chief of Hawthorne Troop 1, the boy’s troop in our city, welcomed us with open arms and lots of of them devoted their time to educating and serving to us get on our toes. I’ve heard many feedback from a number of individuals within the LEC of the Order of the Arrow saying that ladies in positions of energy have been the way forward for the OA. One second that stands out was once I was in the newest Memorial Day parade, and a veteran noticed me with different boy scouts and mentioned “good to see boy scout… and girl scouts” and when a pacesetter corrected him and even advised him I used to be an Eagle Scout, the person saluted me, which was very surreal however actually cool. Overall, my interactions have been very optimistic.

Olszewski might be attending the State University of New York at Potsdam within the fall of 2022. Dempsey is headed to Northwestern University.

Nationally, solely 6 % of scouts full the rigorous necessities to realize the rank of Eagle Scout.

The Eagle Court of Honor was held on Saturday at Holy Rosary Church. County Legislator Margaret Cunzio introduced two declarations declaring June 9, 2022 as Eleanor Dempsey Day and June 10, 2022 as Jane Olszewski Day in Westchester County. Their names will seem in lights on the message board on the County Center in White Plains on their respective days.

“We have received nothing but support from council, the Mohican district, and several Troops including Hawthorne Troop One and Tarrytown Troop 22. Their assistance and guidance have been invaluable,” Laura Olszewski mentioned. “To date, our beloved troop has logged over 30 nights of camping in addition to two weeks of summer camp at the Curtis S. Read scout camp in Brandt Lake, NY. We have also hiked numerous trails along our scouting journey. Because our troop is relatively small, we were still able to camp even in the middle of a global pandemic.

“We have three scouts inducted into the Order of the Arrow, the respect society inside scouts. And now we’ve our first two Eagle Scouts! These younger girls are blazing the path for many who come behind them. We are excited to be making historical past in scouts and are equally excited for what the long run holds.”