Lower Nazareth teen joins growing ranks of female Eagle Scouts
Marissa Smith might have followed a traditional path, making her way through the ranks of the Girl Scouts, but she was born with a restless spirit. She wanted the thrill of rugged outdoor adventures and didn't want to wait.
"All we did was arts and crafts," the 14-year-old Lower Nazareth Township girl said as she looked back on those Girl Scout days. "I wanted to do hiking, camping. I wanted to learn first aid."
The Girl Scouts do all of those things, of course, but Marissa thought she'd get to do them sooner with the Boy Scouts of America. So she joined a Cub Scout troop when she was in third grade, just as the organization began admitting girls.
"She was the only girl in her troop," said Marissa's mother, Loralee. "But they treated her like one of them."
Now, in 2024, Marissa is a newly minted Eagle Scout, the highest of the seven ranks in the 114-year-old organization. She earned it upon completing her Eagle project, the construction of a 300-yard-long archery range in Palmerton.
Marissa was elevated last month during a court of honor ceremony at a Bethlehem church, capping off a career of achievements and honors: 70 merit badges and a couple of dozen high honors and recognitions.
She's a terrific Scout, in other words, and one in the growing ranks of female Eagle Scouts. The first achieved the rank only three years ago; there are about 6,000 now.
Marissa isn't the first female Eagle Scout in the Lehigh Valley, but she is the first in Bethlehem Troop 3193, which surprised no one. It was clear early on she was going places. She won the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby — a competitive race of wood cars handmade by the children — in her first year.
In sixth grade, she rose from Cub Scout to Boy Scout and starting earning merit badges in — well, in everything. Cooking, crime prevention, dog care, first aid, personal fitness, entrepreneurship, graphic arts, public speaking, reptile and amphibian safety, game design, genealogy — on and on. Scouting preaches preparedness and it's hard to imagine a more literal approach to that end.
Beyond those achievements, Marissa has logged about 200 hours of community service, helping at food banks and participating in conservation projects.
"We always say she exemplifies the Scout oath," her mother said. "She just lives by it daily. As hard as the path is to get to Eagle Scout, she never complained."
The Boys Scouts, incidentally, won't be the Boy Scouts much longer. Starting in February, the organization will be called Scouting America , a name change reflecting the sea change in its makeup. There are more than 176,000 girls in the program.
Marissa, who is a student in the Commonwealth Charter Academy, an online school program, has some ideas about her future. Among other things, she has an interest in veterinary medicine. She also wants to train service dogs and, perhaps, breed show dogs.
She'll keep up the adventures, too, hitting the mountains and rivers and other call-of-the-wild destinations.
She always prepared, after all.
"She can put up a tent probably blindfolded," her mother said.
Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 61-820-6598 or
