Update: On Dec. 3, Campbell Timmons accomplished her goal of becoming one of America’s first female Eagle Scouts. After more than an hour of questioning by troop committee members, an outside Board of Review officially approved her Eagle rank.

Eagle Scouts are rare because of the challenging requirements necessary to achieve the lofty rank. All Eagle Scouts have been young men so far, but Campbell Timmons is working to become one of the first female Eagles in the entire country.

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In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced they’d welcome girls into their new Scouts BSA program, and Timmons joined in February of 2019. She’s one of 800 young women across the country currently working to achieve Eagle status.

“I have wanted to be a Scout for the majority of my life,” says Timmons, a member of Lake Highlands Troop 890. “The best things about being a Scout are the friends I have made and the skills I have learned. I love the outdoor and camping adventures that come with being a Scout.”

Timmons never joined Girl Scouts, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t relish the support of females her age.

“There are about 40-50 girls on the girls’ side of Troop 890, and they are some of the best friends that I will ever make. I have become friends with some of the boys in the troop as well. They were very welcoming to us,” says Timmons. “I personally like the Boy Scouts better, because I feel like the program is more suited to the things that I am interested in.  I always liked a challenge, so working towards Eagle was my goal from the start.”

To become an Eagle, candidates must serve as a Life Scout for six months and lead a service project within the community. Timmons’ project involves helping Highlander School, where she attended from preschool through 6th grade, prepare to welcome students back safely during the pandemic. She’s designing and ordering new face coverings with the school logo, building industrial hand sanitizer dispensers, creating classroom silverware kits since kids will be eating in classrooms and distributing school supplies while teachers sanitize their spaces.

Demonstrating leadership and organizing volunteers is part of the process to becoming an Eagle Scout. Timmons’ crew, as shown in the photos, include Ursuline sophomore Ruby Farley (white tee), St. John’s 6th grader Lukas Farley (black SPCA tee), Alcuin School sophomore Stanley Turner (black TCU tee) and St. Thomas 7th grader Cooper Timmons (brown Maui tee).

“When children stay safe, they get the opportunity to actually go to school in person,” says Timmons, who understands the idea that kids would rather be on campus with their friends. She’s beginning her sophomore year at Bishop Lynch.

“The teachers are going to have to be responsible for keeping the students’ masks on, and that will be an extra challenge, along with engaging and teaching the kids. If the kids are stuck at home, then most likely the parents are going to have to do most of the organizing work for the children.”

In 2019, 61,353 young men earned the rank of Eagle and led volunteers to complete 8,575,780 hours of work in service projects all over the country. When her project is finished, Scouts BSA will add at least one “young woman” to that total. Timmons says she’ll feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from pushing a task all the way to completion.

“I will feel like Highlander is successfully ready to go back to school and the teachers will be at ease because they don’t have to organize their school supplies, worry about masks and have hand sanitizers all over the school,” says Timmons. “I am making a step-by-step list of how to do my project for next year. I hope someone will be inspired to jump in and volunteer to do it.”