2 Members Of All-Girl Scout Troop Earn Eagle Scout Status

MOUNT PLEASANT, NY — Mount Pleasant Troop 125 held its first Eagle Scout Court of Honor Saturday, and it was a special occasion for everyone, including honorees Eleanor Dempsey of Hawthorne and Jane Olszewski of Thornwood.

Troop 125 is an all-girl troop within Scouts BSA. It was founded Feb. 1, 2019 — the first day that girls were allowed to join Scouts BSA. The troop was one of the first three all-girl troops founded that day in Westchester County.

Olszewski is one of the founding members. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her older brother who achieved the rank of Eagle and her twin brother who was on his way to Eagle. (She ended up beating her twin brother to achieve the rank of Eagle before he did.)

With her brothers deeply involved in scouting and a mother who was both a den leader and the cubmaster of Hawthorne Pack One, Olszewski had tagged along to scouting events since the age of three. She was overjoyed to learn that girls could join Scouts BSA and couldn’t wait to get started.

Her mother, Laura Michalec Olszewski, became the Scoutmaster.

"A little bit of trivia as to the origin of '125'. In order to form a troop, we needed a minimum of five girls. A meeting for those interested in being founding members of an all-female troop within Scouts BSA was held on Jan. 25, 2019 so that we could hit the ground running," Laura Michalec Olszewski told Patch. "At that meeting we discussed logistics and the need for a name for our troop. 'Mount Pleasant' was chosen to attract girls from all of the towns and school districts within Mount Pleasant. '125' was chosen to commemorate the fateful day of our first gathering as a group. The rest is history."

Dempsey is also a founding member. She joined the troop in August 2019 at the urging of three of its members. She also followed in the footsteps of her older brother. In an incredibly tight timeline she achieved the rank of Eagle in 2 years and 9 months — completing 21 merit badges and an Eagle project.

Olszewski completed 31 merit badges (10 more than is required to earn the rank of Eagle) and an Eagle project.

Their projects provided a double dose of improvements at Westlake High School in Thornwood, where they are seniors.

For her Eagle Scout project, Dempsey tackled the auditorium where she spent many hours on stage since sixth grade, and which is in constant use by the high school, middle school, and the community.

Coordinating about two dozen volunteers, she led the painting of a mural on the auditorium wall and renovated a central display case outside the theater. She also worked with the community to research the history of past Westlake shows and lined the walls of the auditorium with enlarged, framed playbills from musicals performed in the space since 1969.

Olszewski undertook the herculean project of organizing and modernizing the costume storage area to benefit the theatre program she has performed with since middle school. She designed and implemented a computer-based inventory and organizational system for the costumes.

After recruiting and leading a team of volunteers to catalogue and organize thousands of costume pieces, users can now search for costume pieces by size, style, and era thus helping hundreds of student thespians look their best onstage.

She told Patch:

I wanted to create a scout troop for girls because I believed it was the best way for us to get started in scouting, with all people new to scouting and learning together. I wanted to join scouting because it has always been a part of my life, and I love the outdoors, so it just felt like the natural conclusion when the opportunity arose. Scouting has been a wonderful journey. From camping to making new friends, to learning new things and teaching the younger scouts, I've enjoyed every bit of it. We started the troop with 5 girls, the minimum required to create a troop, and eventually had around 10 girls registered to the troop. Right now we have 5 people, but we still plan on expanding and reaching out to young people who might be interested. The community has all been very welcoming. Every leader of Hawthorne Troop 1, the boy's troop in our town, welcomed us with open arms and many of them devoted their time to teaching and helping us get on our feet. I've heard many comments from multiple people in the LEC of the Order of the Arrow saying that girls in positions of power were the future of the OA. One moment that stands out was when I was in the most recent Memorial Day parade, and a veteran saw me with other boy scouts and said "good to see boy scout... and girl scouts" and when a leader corrected him and even told him I was an Eagle Scout, the man saluted me, which was very surreal but really cool. Overall, my interactions have been very positive.

Olszewski will be attending the State University of New York at Potsdam in the fall of 2022. Dempsey is headed to Northwestern University.

Nationally, only 6 percent of scouts complete the rigorous requirements to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

The Eagle Court of Honor was held on Saturday at Holy Rosary Church. County Legislator Margaret Cunzio brought two declarations declaring June 9, 2022 as Eleanor Dempsey Day and June 10, 2022 as Jane Olszewski Day in Westchester County. Their names will appear in lights on the message board at the County Center in White Plains on their respective days.

"We have received nothing but support from council, the Mohican district, and several Troops including Hawthorne Troop One and Tarrytown Troop 22. Their assistance and guidance have been invaluable," Laura Olszewski said. "To date, our beloved troop has logged over 30 nights of camping in addition to two weeks of summer camp at the Curtis S. Read scout camp in Brandt Lake, NY. We have also hiked numerous trails along our scouting journey. Because our troop is relatively small, we were still able to camp even in the middle of a global pandemic.

"We have three scouts inducted into the Order of the Arrow, the honor society within scouts. And now we have our first two Eagle Scouts! These young women are blazing the trail for those who come behind them. We are excited to be making history in scouts and are equally excited for what the future holds."