Emily Green, a Chelsea teenager, addressed Massachusetts lawmakers Tuesday.
A girl from Chelsea overcame the odds, going from homelessness to becoming an Eagle Scout and addressing state lawmakers at the Massachusetts State House.
Sixteen-year-old Emily Green, a member of Scouts BSA Troop 56 in Cambridge, knows all about difficult situations as a first-generation Costa Rican American. Her family came to this country with practically nothing, living in shelters, finally getting help from the Scouts.
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Green ultimately reached Eagle. She and other scouts delivered a report to state lawmakers Tuesday, lobbying for participation in Boston inner-city neighborhoods, lighting a fire for kids interested in STEM-related activities and career training.
Reading the report from the Senate rostrum, Green noted that this year marks the fifth anniversary of co-ed Scouting, with girls now welcome to join all aspects of the program. She told senators that 696 girls are members of Scouts BSA in Massachusetts, and 1,767 girls are in the Cub Scouts.
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"Scouting has been instrumental in shaping my character and learning essential life skills. I started as a little girl, joining my brother, who's also an Eagle Scout, in his Scout troops. Then I joined a progressive co-ed troop and advanced through the ranks from a cub scout to Eagle Scout," Green said.
Green is pushing for more girls to join as a means of reaching their goals — just like her.
"Cambridge really helped me push forward and, like, really defy the odds, since a lot of troops weren't really accepting girls or pushing away from that," Green said. "This year, only 970 Scouts became Eagle, and only 129 of them are females."
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Scouting's total membership in the Bay State stands at 35,468, with 20,495 Cub Scouts, 13,300 Scouts BSA, 933 Explorer Scouts, 693 Venture Scouts, and 47 members of Sea Scouting, a maritime arm of the organization.
Green said the program saw an uptick of around 14% in merit badges earned year over year, rising from around 27,000 merit badges earned in 2022 to 30,926 badges in 2023.
"Almost 4,000 of those badges were citizenship-related. This shows the importance of giving back to your community that Scouting really does emphasize," Green said.
As Sen. Bruce Tarr noted during Tuesday's session, scouting includes an "entire team" with parents and other adults who help the program run. The report gave a total of 13,340 adult volunteers who participate in Massachusetts Scouting.
Tarr, who hosts the annual Scouting day at the State House, in his youth was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout. The Gloucester Republican lauded the organization for "building stronger communities and a stronger commonwealth and a stronger America for the future."
The Scouts met in Nurses Hall before Tuesday's Senate session, and after their event in the chamber they were free to tour the capitol to wrap up their day on Beacon Hill.
"For many, it is a uniform, badges, and campfires. But on a deeper level, it represents much more. It's a journey of personal growth, camaraderie, and service," Green told the Senate.
