SORRENTO, Maine — A young girl in Hancock County is nearing a historic achievement as the youngest girl ever to become an Eagle Scout.
On Saturday, 12-year-old Macy Neleski oversaw the construction of a wooden shed at the Sorrento Town Office. Beyond serving as a board game exchange and food storage pantry, the structure is the capstone of Neleski’s meteoric rise through the Scouts, formally known as the Boy Scouts of America.
“I have a lot of determination, and I've been persevering through this whole thing,” Neleski, wearing a uniform covered in patches and badges, said.
Once she becomes a full Eagle Scout, which is expected to happen in February, Neleski will join a select group, made up of just seven percent of scouts.
But, for Neleski, who is still shy of becoming a teenager, the path towards this triumph has been difficult.
“There have been a lot of tears and struggle over this. But I'm here now, my project is being built behind me,” she said.
Beyond the many hurdles one has to overcome to reach the top rung of the scouting ladder, from extensive community services requirements to demonstration of leadership skills, Neleski said she’s faced additional barriers as a female in a male-dominated organization that only allowed girls to become Eagle Scouts in 2019.
In Particular, Neleski remembers her scout review process.
“I was told because I'm so young, and because I'm a girl, they're gonna ask me a bunch more questions,” Neleski explained, “and [that] its gonna be a whole lot more difficult for me.”
This seemingly blatant double standard has extended beyond the Boy Scouts and into the greater community, as Macy’s mom Lensa has observed.
“We would have old men come up to us, give us dirty looks, say really negative things to us like females do not belong in scouting,” Lensa Neleski said.
But both mother and daughter acknowledge these comments don’t do much more than annoy, as Macy marches towards her historic goal as the youngest female Eagle Scout.
“She's not goanna let anything stand in her way,” Lensa adds, “She can climb mountains.”
As Macy rounds the corner of an achievement usually attained at the end of high school, she reflects on how the pursuit has changed her.
“I’m just really… I’m a lot more confident in what I can do now.”
The Boy Scouts of America declined to comment on discrimination on the basis of sex within the Eagle Scout process.