HANOVER — When Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America, opened troops to girls in 2019, scoutmaster Charleen Osborne, “didn’t know how to feel about it.”

“I had questions just like everybody else did,” Osborne, of Sunapee, said in a phone interview.

Those questions included, how would the boy scouts feel about girls in their troop and what will happen if boys and girls camp together?

But her concerns quickly dissipated when she saw how the kids interacted.

“Kids don’t really care,” she said. “They set up a tent, they cook together, they eat together. I haven’t seen any negative impacts at all. I only see positives.”

Now, six years after Scouting America first began allowing girls to participate, two girls, including Osborne’s daughter, are among the first in the Upper Valley to achieve the highest rank in scouting. They join Aubree Herzog of Claremont who earned the honor in 2021.

Celia Osborne, 15, became an Eagle Scout in September. Etna resident Grace Healey, 16, earned the rank in November.

Both girls followed their male relatives into scouting and it’s become an important part of their lives.

Healey, a sophomore at Hanover High School, followed her dad and her brother to achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.

“I was in Girl Scouts, but it’s not as outdoor oriented,” Healey said last Wednesday evening at Troop 45’s biannual Court of Honor, a meeting where scouts are recognized for earning new merit badges and ranks.

At the meeting, Healey sat at a picnic table at the Storrs Pond Recreation Area in Hanover with her brother and fellow Eagle Scout, Abe Healey.

Abe Healey, 18, is grateful Grace can be a scout with him. “I have two sisters and I always wanted to share Scouts with someone but I couldn’t for a long time,” he said.

Healey’s father and scoutmaster, Sean Healey, echoed his son’s sentiment.

“I thought it was awesome when they let girls in,” he said. “I never imagined she’d have the opportunity.”

Sean Healey pointed out that the U.S. is one of the only countries that still segregated the program by gender.

“When we went to international jamborees there were always girls,” he said.

In a 2017 statement, the Boy Scouts said it was expanding program offerings for girls “after years of requests from families” who wanted their boys and girls both participating in its character and leadership programs or for other reasons, including a desire to become an Eagle Scout.

Now, any child “regardless of gender or orientation” is allowed to be a scout, according to Scouting America’s membership policy.

As of last May, 176,000 of the more than 1 million members, or about 18%, of Scouting America, were girls and more than 6,000 girls had reached the rank of Eagle Scout.

Girl Scouts has opposed the Boy Scouts’ decision to expand, emphasizing the importance of girls-only, girl-led environments. The organization has also dismissed claims that it doesn’t offer as many outdoor adventures as Scouting America, stating that “both organizations offer similar outdoor experiences and high-adventure opportunities.”

Of the 20 scouts in Troop 45, three are girls, including Healey.

Another fellow Eagle Scout, Steven Lan, has been a scout for 11 years.

“It’s been more fun with girls,” he said. “It just makes it more inclusive and better.”

From an early age in Sunapee, Celia Osborne, wanted to do the same things her brother Lucien Osborne did. And that included Scouts.

“I got to see all the fun things he did and I wanted to do them too.” Celia Osborne, who’s homeschooled, said in a phone interview.

Osborne was a Girl Scout for nine years and enjoyed it, but she likes what Scouts has taught her.

“Scouts is more focused on your leadership and all sorts of life skills,” she said.

During her four years as a scout, Osborne has learned knot tying, time and finance management, leadership, physical fitness, communication skills, first aid and camping. “I love camping,” she said.

Celia Osborne’s favorite part of Scouts has been making connections.

“The people you get to know in Scouts are all different and they’re all really nice,” she said. “My best friend I met from Scouts.”

In Troop 71, based in New London, there are eight girls, ranging from ages 12 to 16. The troop has about 27 members in all.

“Honestly there’s never really been a difference,” Osborne said when asked if being a girl in the troop has come with any challenges. “The boys have done a really good job integrating us.”

Clara Thorngren, 11, recently crossed over from Cub Scouts into the Hanover Scouts troop. “It just seemed like a really good opportunity to learn things,” she said while sitting with some other new scouts.

For Troop 45’s committee chair Anita Hamalainen, “it’s hard to put into words” what it means for her 8-year-old daughter Isa Snyder-Hamalainen to be able to be in Scouts along with her sons.

“She loves the activities of Cub Scouts,” Hamalainen said while Isa played a game of capture the flag with the other kids at Wednesday’s meeting. “She loves to fish.”

Hamalainen has been the female leader of troop 45 since the transition in 2019. She goes on backpacking and camping trips and attends Camp Carpenter, a Scout summer camp in Manchester, with the troop.

“It’s always seamless and effortless,” she said. “This is how it was meant to be.”

In order to become an Eagle Scout, scouts must complete a service project.

For Osborne’s service project, she built three octagonal picnic tables last July (with the help of her troop, Troop 71) for the Newport Moose Family Center, the meeting place for the Moose community service organization.

For her service project, Healey refurbished the Etna Cemetery. “I drive past it every day and it deserved a fix up,” she said.

She and her troop fixed the fence, primed and painted a shed, and built and installed a handful of benches and birdhouses.

Both girls enjoy scouting enough that they plan to continue even after achieving the Eagle Scout rank.

Osborne plans to stick with Scouts until she ages out at 18, and join Sea Scouts, a program focused on boating skills and water safety in which scouts can continue to participate until they turn 21.

Like Osborne, Healey plans to continue with Scouts as long as she can.

“It’s a vital part of my life,” she said.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.

CORRECTION: Celia Osborne  and Grace Healey became Eagle Scouts in 2024. They are among the first female Eagle Scouts in the Upper Valley since Scouting America, previously known as Boy Scouts of America, began allowing girls into the program in 2019. Aubree Herzog of Claremont became an Eagle Scout in 2021. A previous version of this story was incorrect in who was first to gain the rank.