PHOENIX - The year is 1910. The founding father of the boy scouts in Great Britain, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, inspires a new scout revolution in the U.S.
Boy Scouts of America is born.
The original goal was to teach boys ages 11 to 15 good citizenship, chivalrous behavior, and outdoors skills.
Their training consisted of military preparation, first aid, and all the skills that arise from camping and great outdoors activities.
It was pure Americana.
About 105 million boys have been a part of the century old program, but membership has greatly declined over the years.
Now, the group is re-branding their name. The group as a whole will remain Boy Scouts of America, but when it comes to their program, they will be dropping boy and changing it to Scouts BSA. They will begin welcoming girls into Cub Scouts this year, followed by allowing girls ages 11 to 17 into the Scouts BSA in 2019 .
"We've been advocates for it for a long time, and if we can help girls as well as boys, we need to do that," said Larry Abbott, scout executive and CEO of BSA Grand Canyon Council.
So far, 3,000 girls have already enrolled in the Cub Scouts.
"We see ourselves as a family organization, and we've been excluding just one part of the family, and this gives us an opportunity to reach the entire family," said Abbott.
The Girl Scouts, on the other hand, feels this creates confusion.
"There's not just a general scouting, there's a boy scouting program and a girl scouting program," said Heather Thornton, Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine Council.
According to BSA, this will not be a co-ed environment. Boys will be with boys and girls will be with girls. The Girl Scouts still feels as if it offers girls the best opportunity.
"The research really shows that single-gender environments are important to girls development of confidence, competence and being connected with each other. It really does help girls become fearless leaders," said Thornton.
Ultimately, it is now up to parents to decide if their daughters will join Scouts BSA or the Girl Scouts.
