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Date: 12/16/2021
LUDLOW- In a ceremony on Dec. 5, Kat Romoser, a Longmeadow resident and member of Scouts BSA Girls Troop 180, was honored as the first female Eagle Scout in Western Massachusetts.
As an Eagle Scout, Romoser said she wants to be a role model for the girls in her troop.
“It is a lot more attention than I wanted. The role itself is mostly just me being able to be a leader for those girl’s over there,” she said. “I want to be a role model for the girls, I want to help them and clear the trail because being so new to scouting there it’s a lot more adversity,” she said.
For her Eagle Scout project, Romoser built a Monarch Watch Waystation at the Saint John the Baptist School, just down the street from where her troop meets at Saint Elizabeth Parish.
“There is a school 50 yards down the street, and I made a butterfly garden for the soon to be endangered monarch butterfly. I have been raising monarch butterflies for 15 years, they are an endangered species and there is also a project called Monarch Watch which tags them to research their migration patterns which we have been participating in for 10 years,” she said.
Romoser said she landed with Troop 180 in Ludlow after trying to put together her own troop in Longmeadow in 2019 when the Boy Scouts of America began allowing girls to form their own troops.
“In March of 2019 when I joined, there were not any girl’s troops in my town, I tried for months to start one, but I could not find enough girls, so I eventually gave up on that and we found Troop 180 in Ludlow. The drive is definitely worth it to be with them every week,” she said.
With the changes to the Boy Scouts of America in 2019, Beth Elam, Romoser’s mother and assistant scoutmaster, said it gave her daughter an opportunity to reach Eagle Scout just like her brother.
“I am very proud and very excited, I was this proud when my son made Eagle. The only difference is my son knew from a young age that he could be an Eagle Scout, and my daughter was told that was not ever an opportunity until 2019 when the Boy Scouts of America decided to let girls form their own troops,” she said.
Elam said she hopes her daughter paves the way for more girls to become Eagle Scouts.
“I hope all of the kids now realize whether they are boys or girls that this is an option and a realistic option. She did not get to join until she was 13 and she was able to become an Eagle Scout. It is very exciting,” she said.
Scoutmaster Cara Schneider said Romoser did all the work to become an Eagle Scout the way she wanted to.
“I am proud of her; it was never about me or being first or her being first or the troop being first. It was truly about giving the girls in Western Mass. an opportunity to earn their Eagle and she did that on her own timeline, with her own girls and it was truly her own trail to Eagle,” she said.
Schneider added she is proud of Romoser and is looking forward to seeing her continue to grow as a leader.
“I could not be more proud that she did it for her and nobody else and that she is so devoted to staying here and continuing to work with the troop and continuing to form as a young leader and a role model in our community,” she said.