Cub Scouts hold crossover ceremony to BSA all-girl troop

By BRITTANY FHOLER 
Cove Leader-Press 

Cub Scout Pack 251 held a bridge crossing ceremony for two girls crossing from their Arrow of Light pack to an all-girls troop at the Copperas Cove VFW Post #8577 Friday evening. 
Sydney Karl and Jaliyah Davis, both 10-years-old, crossed over from their Arrow of Light pack to an all-girls troop. 
In crossing from their Cub Scout pack to their new BSA troop, the girls gained the independence associated with troops. While the den leaders and parents hold most of the authority in making decisions on activities in the Cub Scout packs, the Scouts in troops will get to make the decisions of what they want to do and will be the ones who get to lead. 
Karl said she felt good about crossing over. Both girls said they enjoyed the opportunity to be able to do more of the hands-on activities that scouts in troops will get to do, especially camping and being outside more. 
“You get to do more stuff. Whenever we get higher ranks, you get to do more advanced stuff,” Karl said. “Whenever you’re an Arrow, it’s a little bit of help from the parents and a lot from the kids. Whenever you’re in a troop, it’s mostly all the kids, and you have to choose whatever you have to do. The parents don’t choose.” 
They chose the all-girl troop after attending a meeting. Karl said she knew she wanted to join this troop after the first meeting and that she felt a sense of belonging. 
Karl was one of the first girls to have joined the Cub Scout Pack 251 in August 2018, joining as a Bear, and now was one of the first to bridge from the pack to a troop. 
“I feel good,” Karl said about making history. 
“I do feel like I fit in,” Jaliyah said about joining the troop. Jaliyah first joined Cub Scouts in 2019 as a Webelo. 
Karl said she was excited to get to do all of the fun stuff, from making knots to learning how to set up camp to making food. 
As each girl crossed the bridge, she recited each characteristic from the Scout Law which states that a Scout is “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”
Karl’s mother, Sabrina Brightwell, said it was surreal watching Karl crossover. 
“To me, it’s a great accomplishment,” Brightwell said. “It’s a really big, big thing because our boys haven’t crossed over yet, and I don’t know if they’re actually going to go to a troop or not. There’s five of them, and the girls are the only ones that did the crossover. For them just to say, ‘Hey, I want to continue on, and I want to do this,’ I think it’s a lot better that they do have a girl troop that they’re going to because then it empowers them more.”
Brightwell said that the new troop has already made such a difference in the girls’ lives.
“Sydney has matured so much and has been able to do so much more on her own that it makes a huge difference when it comes to her maturity level and getting out there and doing stuff,” Brightwell said. “I think if she wasn’t active in Scouts, she probably wouldn’t be doing anything.”
As a Cub Scout and now BSA troop member, Karl is heavily involved in doing community service work. 
Jaliyah’s grandmother Shalom Brown said she feels excited and very proud of Jaliyah’s accomplishment. Scouting has made Jaliyah more confident, she said. 
“We just got into it a year and a half ago,” Brown said. “She chose it, she wanted to get into this for the adventures and all the stuff that they do, and I was excited for that, so the fact that she just wants to continue makes me just over the moon.” 
For more information on Cub Scouts, people can find Cub Scout Pack 251 on Facebook.