Unity teens 1st area females to attain Eagle Scout rank

Two members of a Ligonier-based Boy Scout troop have just become Eagle Scouts, continuing a family tradition that started with their brother, who achieved the honor in 2018.

What makes these two so different from others who have earned the highest rank in Scouting is that these 18-year-old college freshmen are the first females in the Westmoreland-Fayette Council Boy Scouts of America to earn the honor, according to Marcus Ragland, the new executive director of the Greensburg-based council.

Elizabeth and Hannah Yothers will become Eagle Scouts on Monday, joining their brother, Matthew, as fraternal triplets who have attained the rank.

“It feels great,” Hannah Yothers said.

“It took us a long time to finish. In the end, I’m just glad it is over,” Elizabeth “Liz” Yothers said.

Their brother had attained Eagle Scout by the time the sisters joined Boy Scouts in February 2019, when girls were permitted to join the Boy Scouts, said Dawn Lamuth-Higgins, Scoutmaster for the all-female Troop 1372. They were among the founding members of Troop 1372, which is linked to the all-male Troop 372, she said.

“They worked really hard and were really organized” and dedicated to earning the Eagle Scout rank as soon as they could, Lamuth-Higgins said. “They’re super high-quality kids.”

Because they were turning 18 in May 2020 and knew they could not reach Eagle Scout by then, the girls were able to get a year’s extension to achieve the top rank, Hannah said.

“That made our dream a reality,” Hannah said.

Elizabeth and Hannah, the daughters of Lisa and Glenn Yothers of Unity, did so well that they earned 10 more merit badges than the 21 required. They earned bronze and gold palms in the process, Lamuth-Higgins said.

“They worked very hard,” Lisa Yothers said.

What made the challenge even more difficult was that they did it while navigating their senior year at Greater Latrobe High School and their first year in college — Hannah at Penn State Behrend in Erie and Elizabeth at Westmoreland County Community College, with plans to attend Messiah College in Mechanicsburg in the fall. All five members of the family got covid around Thanksgiving, forcing them to pause their efforts, they said.

“It’s been very stressful,” Elizabeth said.

The girls found fulfilling the requirements for the hiking merit badge the most challenging. Hannah said she has a medical condition that robs her of her stamina, so the 15- and 20-mile hikes along the Ghost Town Trail in Indiana County were particularly difficult.

The sisters did their Eagle Scout projects at Westmoreland Cleanways Recycling Center in Unity, where Elizabeth cleared and beautified the gravel driveway, planting grass where there had been weeds, said Natalie Reese, program director for the environmental organization. She also designed five educational signs about recycling that can be rotated for display, Reese said.

Hannah did landscaping around the sign at the recycling center entrance at Pleasant Unity-Mutual Road and built two benches that can flipped to become a picnic table where groups can sit during educational programming and meetings, Reese said.

Before joining the Scouts, the girls were involved in Venturing, a Scouting program open to boys and girls. The girls also had been involved in Boy Scout activities with their brother, Lamuth-Higgins said.

“Scouting is a family activity, and we have a lot members” whose siblings joined them in Boy Scout events, Lamuth-Higgins said.

Scouting BSA chose Monday for its inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts because it is the anniversary date of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America 111 years ago, Lamuth-Higgins said. By having all female Scouts who passed their board of review as a final hurdle, there would not be any “race to the finish” to be the first female Eagle Scout, Lamuth-Higgins said.

While there are girls in the Pittsburgh-based Laurel Highlands Boy Scout Council who are working to become Eagle Scouts, none is there yet, said Jerome Gaughan, chief development officer for the council, which covers districts in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.

A typical ceremony recognizing the new Eagle Scouts was postponed because of the covid pandemic, Lamuth-Higgins said.

The sisters already are giving back to the BSA Scouting program and have decided to be assistant Scoutmasters, they said.

“I’m very proud of them. I’m so blessed to have three kids who were dedicated to it (achieving Eagle Scout),” Lisa Yothers said.