Photo courtesy of the Mountain Echo.
A senior at Yellville-Summit High School has become the first female to earn an Eagle Scout Badge and the first female Scouts BSA to receive the honor in the Natural State Council.
Strain completed the project in December by building 10 Leopold Benches. It is said the benches were completed in a day, while the planning took nearly a year.
Strain was a Girl Scout for eight years, prior to joining the Scouts BSA after its creation in 2019. She is a member of the Scouts BSA Troop 179G from Bergman.
Beginning in Feb 2019 the Boy Scouts of America began allowing females to join Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops and renamed Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA to be more inclusive. The Westark Area Council and the Quawpaw Council merged on Dec. 1 to form the Natural State Council. Strain is the first Eagle Scout to earn their Eagle Scout rank in the new council. To earn this prestigious honor that only 10 percent of all scouts earn, she had to complete many merit badges and advancement requirements. She also had to complete an Eagle Scout Project.
Strain organized and led the completion of her benches and Blossoms Project with the help of many volunteers and these local sponsors: Miller’s Hardware, Merchant Lumber, Vance Vision Clinic, Sunfest Market, 28 Door Company, Bible Missionary Church of Mountain Home and Tim Walls. Strain was a Girl Scouts for 8 years before joining Scouts BSA. In addition to scouts, Strain participates in FBLA and varsity softball at Yellville Summit High School. She has also participated in FFA and 4H. After graduating high school in May, she plans to attend North West Arkansas Community College and major in nursing.
Currently, there is no Cub Scout pack or Scouts BSA troop in Yellville, but work is in progress to start one as soon as there are enough Cubs/Scouts to have one. A few cubs are meeting on Tuesday Nights at 6 at the elementary cafeteria. Anyone interested can show up or call/text 870-232-1395 for more information. The next meeting will be after the first of the new year and school has started back.
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