Pickford senior becomes the first female Eagle Scout in Chippewa County history

Emily Roe is a senior at Pickford High School and the only member of Boy Scout Troop 6355. She is also the first female to reach the rank of Eagle Scout not just in Chippewa County but in the entire Eastern Upper Peninsula.

Emily has lived in and around the woods her entire life, and she loves it. Hiking, camping, cooking over a campfire, and just being in nature is something that's always agreed with her.

"I've always lived in the woods so I've always kind of known the woods and I love camping. I just found it really interesting," Emily said. "I just loved to learn about animals and the trees. I was always interested in that stuff."

Despite her love for the great outdoors, Emily never thought she would be able to join her friends in the Boy Scouts, mostly because up until a few years ago girls weren't allowed to join the group at all.

In 2019, Boy Scouts of America (BSA) officially began to allow young girls to become scouts for the first time, and in the following year a wave of young ladies joined the scouts. One of those new scouts was Emily, who also has a summer job working at the the scout camp Hiawatha.

Emily worked at the camp for two summers where she learned a lot about Boy Scouts and made friends among the scouts.

"She worked at Camp Hiawatha and she just seen how much fun that they had and all of the opportunities that they had," said Emily's mother, Jen Roe. "And the friendships that they made at the camp, and she really wanted to be a part of that."

Emily joined the scouts as the only member in her troop, because there were no other girl scouts in the entire region. Even without the support of an entire troop, Emily set out to accomplish something that only a fraction of Boy Scouts ever achieve, becoming an Eagle Scout.

Eagle Scout is the highest rank in BSA and it's something that around only 4 percent of scouts ever achieve, even if they joined the scouts at a young age. One of the requirements to become an Eagle Scout is that you have to accomplish it by age 18. Most scouts who reach this rank take up to six years to accomplish it. Roe only had two years before her 18th birthday to pull it off.

Twenty-one merit badges, two years, one Eagle project and lots of outdoor adventures later, and Emily became the first female Eagle Scout in the Eastern Upper Peninsula just two weeks before her 18th birthday.

When Emily decided that she wanted to become a scout, the first thing she did was find a troop leader for her solo troop. Pickford High School secretary Tonya Brace was more than happy to help her with that. Emily chose Brace, who she knew from school, to be her troop leader because Brace herself was a very organized person and had a son who was a Boy Scout, so she knows a lot about the program.

Brace helped Emily plan her path to becoming an Eagle Scout just in time for her 18th birthday. Brace also helped Emily complete her service project.

"Most Boy Scouts don't make it within the timeframe that they have and they usually start in fifth grade," Brace said. "Very few Boy Scouts make Eagle and she made it in less than two years. That is a huge accomplishment. She was truly dedicated."

Emily did a lot of things to earn her various badges in the short time frame, including making a shelter entirely out of snow, proving her knowledge of astronomy and teaching herself how to identify plants in the wild.

One of Emily's greatest passions is the culinary arts. Not only did she earn her merit badge in cooking, but she also plans on attending culinary school after graduation. Emily said she enjoyed being able to combine her love of cooking with her experience in the scouts.

"She's been enthralled with cooking since she could stand on a chair and help stir," said Jen.

Emily added that "I've been interested in culinary arts since I was in kindergarten."

"I was just looking through some Disney books and I always saw like the little chef hat and I was like 'Oh, I want to do that,'" she said.

Emily will be attending Les Cheneaux Culinary School after graduation and plans on becoming a cook. Emily said she hopes that with her culinary career she can save up enough money to travel and visit other countries.

Emily has been through a lot of experiences in the two years since she began this adventure, including a camping and hiking trip where she and several other scouts spent two weeks hiking over 100 miles across the mountains of New Mexico.

Emily spent weeks just preparing for the climb and spent most of it carrying nearly half of her own body weight on her back. Despite the challenges, Emily said she was always dedicated and confident in herself.

As part of reaching the Eagle Scout status, each scout must complete their own service project. The service project can be anything to help the scout's community or school.

As a way of serving her school, Emily decided to help celebrate her graduating class, which is the 100th graduating class from Pickford High School, by creating picture compilations of every graduating class that came before.

While it was impossible to get every photo from previous classes, Emily managed to gather more than 95 of the 100 graduating classes into their own composite photos, which can be found in Pickford High School right now.

To do this, Emily had to complete research and collect photos from historical records and yearbooks going back 100 years. Emily was even able to catalogue the years her own family members graduated, including her mother and grandmother.

"I would say this to anybody who wants to join scouts, not just girls. If you want to achieve Eagle, it's totally worth it," Emily said. "It feels so rewarding and it's honestly an honor because you just serve so many people in the community and being a part of scouts really helps with that. And I've met so many amazing people and you can do it, you just have to go for it and you just can't give up."

Emily and other Boy Scouts will undergo the ceremony to officially become Eagle Scouts in the summer.

"I'm very proud of myself and I think that it will all pay off in the end," Emily said.

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Pickford senior becomes the first female Eagle Scout in Chippewa County history