(Radio Iowa) – Boy Scouts of America will be renamed Scouting America on February 8th of next year. Matt Hill is executive of the Mid-Iowa Council for Boy Scouts of America. “We started allowing young ladies to join our programs about five years ago and so this coincidentally enough coincides with the five year anniversary of that change,” Hill says, “and really reflects our commitment to being inclusive of all young people that want to join scouting.” Hill says he has a unique perspective about the name change. He’s an Eagle Scout who appreciates what scouting meant to him and his buddies growing up AND he’s the father of a girl.

“I don’t know of any parent that would really not want his or her child to have the same opportunities that they did,” Hill says. “…Allowing girls into the program has been phenomenal for us so far.” The Boy Scouts’ Mid-Iowa Council covers 29 counties and Hill says nearly 50 girls in the region have become Eagle Scouts in the past five years. “The integration has really, in many ways, been seamless. The kids are so adaptable,” Hill says. “We’ve just had young ladies that whether their brother was in scouting, their dads were in scouting or another family member, or they just really like our programs, they have really embraces our programs and I think it’s been fantastic for all of us.”

Hill is in Orlando at the national annual meeting of Boy Scouts of America where the name change was announced. Since girls were accepted as Cub Scouts in 2018, six-thousand girls across the country have become Eagle Scouts. About a million U-S kids are in the Boy Scouts today. The Girl Scouts of America still exists and has not commented on the Boy Scouts name change. The Boy Scouts are in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings that have allowed it to keep operating while paying over 80-thousand men who say they were sexually abused when they were Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts.