Blazing a New Trail: Mills, Eugea area’s first female Eagle Scouts

Two members of Clarendon’s Scouts BSA Troop 4433 were recognized for making history last Saturday by becoming the first local girls to become Eagle Scouts.

Evelyn Mills and Kacie Eugea formally received the BSA’s highest award during a Court of Honor Saturday, December 3, at the Bairfield Activity Center.

Mills was the first girl in the Eastern Panhandle to receive the honor after standing her board of review at Camp MK Brown near Wheeler this summer.

Girls have been active in the Boy Scouts of America since 1969 when they were first allowed to join special-interest Explorer posts. In 1971, BSA girls could become full members of Explorers (now called Venture Scouts), but those organizations do not have a path to the revered Eagle rank.

Following the desires of scouting families, BSA opened Cub Scouting to girls in 2018 followed by the renamed Scouts BSA in 2019 with the nation’s first female earning her Eagle in 2020.

During his welcoming remarks Saturday, Assistant Scoutmaster Jason Eugea said BSA finally figured out what parents and scout leaders had known all along.

“Parents always knew that girls have been there,” Eugea said. “They’ve been camping and done the other things but never received the awards. I hope you all see that what the girls are doing is worthwhile. They build the same trestles, and they learn the same knots. Now, I get to give my daughter the same award I gave my son.”

For Evelyn and Kacie, they grew up in scouting with their older brothers. They were present and sometimes participating, but they could not join the organization. Instead, they were both in Girl Scouts, starting as Daisies. But when the BSA opened up the option for them, they quickly moved their memberships.

“Count me in!” was Kacie’s reaction, she recalls.

“Boy Scouts are just more active and do more things,” she said. “They camp more, and they slept outside in tents where we were sleeping in cabins [in Girl Scouts].”

Evelyn also jumped at the chance to join Scouts BSA and go for the Eagle.

“Now I could actually earn the awards that we had been doing with the boys,” she said.

The girls said they think they did Fingerprinting at least five times before they were able to join and earn the merit badge for themselves.

Assistant Scoutmaster Linda Rowland praised how well the members of the girls Troop 4433 work together with boys Troop 433, both of which are chartered by Clarendon’s First Christian Church.

“In our troops, the boys and girls work together and can be completely trusted,” Rowland said.

New Eagle Scouts often present a mentor pin to someone who has been influential to them in scouting. Usually that is presented to an adult, but Mills also presented a mentor pin to fellow Eagle Scout Jacob Murillo – an example of how the boys and girls have gotten along together.

“For me, it wasn’t difficult joining Boy Scouts,” she said. “I had been coming to meetings since my brother was in Cub Scouts, so they were used to me being there.”

For their projects, Mills repaired and refurbished a baptistry and installed an ADA ramp at Primitive Baptist Church in Canyon, and Eugea built and installed a “take some, leave some” box outside the Helping Hands Food Pantry in Groom.

“It was good to get to help my church community,” Mills said.

For Eugea, it makes her happy to be helping people.

“The food pantry serves about 100 people, but it’s only open twice a month,” she said. “Now they can get food when they need it.”

Mills and Eugea have some simple advice for other girls coming up behind them or who may be thinking about pursuing the goal of Eagle Scout.

“Just do it and don’t give up,” Mills said, and Eugea added, “You can overcome any obstacle.”