GREENFIELD — Growing up, Troop 5 Scoutmaster Emily Lohsen-Carcich, a Girl Scout at the time, watched as her brother climbed the Cub Scout ranks while learning about leadership and the outdoors.
During a tour of her brother’s Cub Scout camp, she recalls thinking, “This is what I wanted.”
On June 6, Lohsen-Carcich cheered for her daughter in a milestone Crossover Ceremony at Camp Avery with its first co-ed troop of Scouts.
“It’s really amazing that now girls are allowed to be a part of this,” Lohsen-Carcich said.
Although girls could join the Scout troops, the girls and boys participated in separate groups until this year, when Greenfield’s Troop 5 transitioned into a mixed-gender Family Troop for the first time.
According to Lohsen-Carcich, the change allows girls to learn the lessons and embark on the activities of Scouting in larger groups.
“Scouting is more fun when there’s a lot of Scouts involved versus being in a troop of five girls,” she said.
With the shift, the many siblings in the troop could Scout together, Pack 3 Cubmaster Chris Fontaine noted.
“As soon as the guidance came out, I got on the phone with council and said, ‘What do you need to make this happen?'” Fontaine said, recalling when the news broke in November that the Greenfield troop could become co-ed. “It’s great to see the national-level program progressing with the times.”
During the Crossover Ceremony, the youngsters advanced to their next rank. A Cub Scout progresses toward a badge of rank based on their grade as part of The Advancement Trail.
“As Cub Scouts, you’ve hiked, built, explored, served and grown,” Fontaine said to kick off the ceremony. “Advancement isn’t just about badges; it’s about growing and becoming better Scouts and better people. Tonight, we honor that growth.”
To symbolize the children crossing over to the next rank, they walked over a wooden bridge as their families, friends and fellow Cub Scouts cheered, snapped photos and high-fived them.
“It is a family affair for us [and] so many of our families,” said Fontaine, whose wife helps run the pack as a den leader and whose daughter crossed the bridge.
The ceremony also marked the largest Cub Scout Pack 3 in Greenfield yet. According to Assistant Scoutmaster Mike Audet, only 11 active Cub Scouts participated in 2021. Five years later, 45 Cubs participated in the ceremony on June 6, a rise he traced to the pack’s “incredible, energized leadership.”
Along with the children and teens, Fontaine awarded several adult leaders with Scouter Knots for their advanced training, including a few who enrolled in Wood Badge, the highest level of adult leadership training in Scouting.
After the ceremony for the Cubs and shoutouts for the adult leaders, the attendees ate hot dogs, hamburgers and pulled pork sandwiches at the campsite before a Court of Honor for the older Scouts.
Lohsen-Carcich stressed that Scouting entails more than the ranks, awards and badges.
“It instills values of good citizenship, leadership, accountability and responsibility,” she said. “They’re learning how to teach each other and how to be good leaders.”
For Fontaine, who became a Cub Scout in the 1990s, the success of a pack comes down to “that culture that you foster.” He described Cub Scout Pack 3’s culture as “family-and-friendship-centered.”
“We all come from different walks of life with different skills and experiences and connections,” Fontaine said of the pack’s den leaders, Cubs, Scouts and supporters. “We’re all tapping into those to really make it successful — it’s no one person.”
