DENVER, Colorado — When the Boy Scouts announced it was going to start accepting girls, it got a lot of people talking. Now, girls are starting to join the dens.
The Now, a television show of the E.W. Scripps Company, talked with one of the first to sign up about why she's doing it, and her message to other girls.
When it comes to a boy scout meeting, you'd expect it to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. But what you might not expect is to see girls reciting the pledge, with the boys.
A meeting just outside Denver, Colorado is one of the first meetings since girls have been welcomed to join Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.
Girls across the country can join Cub Scouts in August. But 8-year-old Caroline Graham is one of the first as a part of their early adopter program. And for her, it's not just about getting to participate in scout traditions. But getting to do more of what she loves; camping.
"You get to be outdoors," Graham said. "And you get to make way more friends."
Until now, her dad would bring her along on some trips with her brothers, but as a girl scout, she often had to stay behind.
"I really wanted to go cause my brothers got to go," Graham said. "And now I actually can."
"Every time we'd pull out of the driveway on her way to a camping trip her last though was, can I go?" Caroline's dad and den leader Andrew Graham said. "And we'd say not this time. But now that's gone."
Andrew Graham says he's glad his daughter will be able to have the same opportunities as his sons.
"We're not trying to turn them into boys by no stretch of the imagination," said Andrew Graham. "We want them to just turn into the same leaders we're developing our boys to turn into. And this give us that opportunity."
Caroline Graham's brother Oliver says it's about time.
"It's 2018 and you shouldn't be so sexist," Oliver Graham said.
Charlie Graham just glad they can all do things together.
"I feel like as a family now we can just sort of all progress up together sort of compete against each other for ranks and stuff," Charlie Graham said. "Whereas just before it was just all the boys."
But Elliot Graham's feelings are a bit different.
"I'm scared," Elliot Graham said. "I'm scared they're going to beat us."
Yes, the boys will face some new competition in popcorn sales and in the pinewood derby. But from the looks of the meeting, none of that seems to matter.
And what Caroline Graham hopes can come from this?
"Other girls will decide they want to start this," Caroline Graham said. "And might actually come."
Adding a new verse to an old song. And new voices to an evolving American institution.
