Colorful boxes full of intricately-crafted treats indicate that Girl Scouts are selling signature cookie flavors like Caramel Chocolate Chip and Raspberry Rally around the neighborhood. Similarly, Scouts BSA members hand out bags of buttery, crunchy Trail’s End popcorn to customers. Although these fundraisers make the clubs well-known, there’s more to the two organizations than selling snacks.

The Boy Scouts of America aims to prepare individuals aged 11-17 to venture on their life journeys using the Scout Oath and Law values as their moral compass. With approximately 2.2 million youth members currently, Scouts BSA emphasizes real-world skills such as swimming and personal finance in their lessons.

Likewise, Girl Scouts of the United States of America empowers girls to discover new talents and develop essential life skills through various enriching experiences. Formerly known as Girl Guides, Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouts in 1912 after taking inspiration from the newly established Boy Scouts institution. Today, the organization has around 2.5 million members.

Sisters Kaitlyn Schmidt-Rundell ’23 and Erin Schmidt-Rundell ’24 have been members of Girl Scouts since kindergarten, with the program having instilled a legacy in their family.

“My mom was already a troop leader for my oldest sister and then my older sister, so it was kind of already planned [that I would join],” Erin said.

Star-ranked Eyad Ali ’25 joined Scouts BSA about four years ago.

“I wanted to try something new, and [Scouts BSA] is all about adventures and new experiences,” Ali said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

City High graduate Trina Surratt ’96 has been a part of Girl Scouts for as long as she can remember. Currently, she leads her daughter’s fourth-grade troop. Surratt believes scouting now is different than when she was a member.

“There’s more of a focus [now on things] other than the sales,” Surratt said. “Girls can do more science and math than I remember ever being taught when I was little.”

In 2017, Scouts BSA aimed to become more inclusive by rebranding its program to accept all applicants, regardless of gender. According to The New York Times, many in the U.S. celebrated the decision. However, it was criticized by Girl Scouts, stating that women flourish in all-female groups. Tiff Lieberman ’25 has been a member of Scouts BSA since first grade. She believes this change is for the better. 

“I think it should always have been that anyone could join Scouts because everywhere else in the world, Scouts is for everyone and not just for boys,” Lieberman said. “[However], it’s still called Scouts BSA, and BSA is Boy Scouts of America. I feel like they could have done a better job, but I’m glad they did at least this.”

The members’ moral compass is built upon the Girl Scouts’ Code of Conduct and the Scouts BSA Scout Oath and Law. Scouts BSA members apply the pacts to improve their neighborhoods and themselves. 

“Throughout our lives, we use [the Scout Oath and Law]. I also apply them [every day] because I’m a Muslim too, and [the] morals connect,” Ali said. “We stay kind, and we are very safe in our community. Scouts [members] have a lifelong benefit from it.”

Erin states that Girl Scouts teaches her to better her environment, whether that be picking up trash or simply respecting her surroundings. 

“One of the mottos of Girl Scouts is to ‘leave it better than you found it,’” Erin said. “So even if there’s no trash, you can try to take it up a notch by wiping down tables or just trying to make it the cleanest that it could be in the time that you have.”

In addition to the life lessons a scout imparts, scouts collect tokens for their achievements, called merit badges. There are 135 badges one can earn that encompass tasks such as mastering chess or learning first aid techniques.

“You learn lifelong skills,” Ali said. “Merit badges are the building blocks to your advancement in scouts and your skills in life.” 

Members of both organizations engage in weekly meetings and activities with their troops, such as canoeing and horseback riding. Scouts BSA members can enroll themselves in the Howard H. Cherry Scout Reservation, a premier Scouts BSA Summer Camp program that features a week of learning, leadership, achievement and most importantly scouting. A variety of merit badge options and interactive games are available as well. Lieberman’s scout troop participates in the program every year.

“I like it because the environment there is really nice. You can do archery, you can do shooting sports, you can swim, you can climb rock walls. Or you can just hang around the trading post,” Lieberman said. “It’s very versatile.”

Becoming an Eagle Scout is the highest rank one can achieve in Scouts BSA. To receive this honor, a Scout must meet a plethora of requirements, including completing a comprehensive community project. Lieberman’s service project involved creating a mental health website called Center for Wellness for West High students.

“It has resources for people to understand about different mental health conditions and get help,” Lieberman said. “There’s also things to distract people like music and different relaxing games.”

The Girl Scouts’ equivalent of the Eagle Scout rank is the Gold Award. With only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earning this achievement, the Gold Award represents a member’s leadership commitment to themselves and their community. Ambassador-ranked Kaitlyn plans on utilizing her community project to help individuals gain knowledge about the prairie near St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.

“I’m going to be making signs … about what you can find in the prairie, what not to touch in the prairie, how the prairie helps our environment and the animals that you might see around you,” Kaitlyn said. 

Girl Scouts also help the community by donating a percentage of money earned through cookie sales to charity. 

“We’ve made it a little tradition in our troop that before Christmas, we go out and we shop for different people in need in the community,” Surratt said. 

Scouts BSA members sell popcorn as a way of financing their troops, and they give back by collecting food during Halloween for food drives.

“It’s ridiculous the amount of food that gets brought in, like hundreds of pounds,” Lieberman said. “It helps out local food kitchens, and it gets a lot of people food that they need.”

Members of Girl Scouts and Scouts BSA engage in weekly meetings and activities with their troops, such as canoeing and horseback riding. Although both organizations participate in an assortment of projects, Girl Scouts is sometimes viewed as lesser than.

“I think people believe that for Girl Scout camps, we don’t do as much, but we go swimming, we do archery, we get to zipline. A stereotype … is [that] Girl Scouts is a super girly thing, but we work on a lot more than just the stereotypical girly stuff,” Erin said. “I wish people would see how much effort Girl Scouts themselves put into being a Girl Scout.”

While she enjoys being a part of the organization, Kaitlyn notices that when people find out she’s a Girl Scout, their reactions tend to be negative.

“They’re surprised every time; they’re like, ‘You’re still in Girl Scouts? You’re a senior in high school,’” Kaitlyn said. 

Lieberman wishes individuals were more open-minded about being a part of Scouts BSA or Girl Scouts.

“I wish people didn’t go into it with any stigma because I feel like a lot of people don’t do it just because of stereotypes or things they’ve seen in movies or TV shows,” Lieberman said.

Members within the two organizations work together to combat stereotypes as they enjoy partaking in adventures with their troops and creating memories together. Ali feels the respect his troop members give to each other is a large part of what brings the group together.

“They respect each other’s religions. For meetings, if I have dietary restrictions, like pork, they would be considerate and not have that, or they would get [alternatives] like turkey or beef,” Ali said. “We all find a way to reconcile with that, plan differently and just be considerate.”

Similar to Ali, Erin views her troop as a valuable addition to her life.

“It’s a smaller second family because I’ve known them for so many years, and we’ve had so many different experiences together,” Erin said.

This story was originally published on West Side Story on April 22, 2023.