Aurora senior excited to carry on a family tradition
An Aurora senior has been working hard putting on the finishing touches of a hatchet target range as part of her final step toward becoming an Eagle Scout.
Kimberly Evans will not only become the third Eagle Scout in her family, but the first girl Eagle Scout in Troop 28.
“(I feel) accomplished,” Evans stated. “Like I can set my goals and achieve them.”
Over 2.5 million scouts have been recorded as having received the prestigous Eagle rank. Out of that group, she will be among the 2.5 percent of women to have achieved it.
Evans’ journey into Scouts USA began like any younger sibling, wanting to join in the fun activities her brothers Derrick and Greg were doing. While she couldn’t join the Boy Scouts like her brothers at the time, she was just as eager to learn in the Girl Scouts when she began kindergarten in 2011.
“With Girl Scouts, I was involved the same way. The reason I got involved with Scouts (BSA) was my brothers,” Evans explained. “I don’t know how they got in, I think it was just a group of friends decided they wanted to try so I wanted to the same thing as they did.”
With her mother, Penny, in charge of her Girl Scout Troop, Evans was able to learn the same essential skills as her brothers.
“My mom had began to teach our Girl Scout Troop and she was leader from the Boy Scout handbook, Evans said. “We did all the first aid, fire-starting, knife safety and community service.”
Evans continued participating in Girls Scouts up through her seventh grade year, when Boy Scouts of America became Scouts USA, allowing girls to join Boy Scouts.
“It was a case that they’ve been having for a long time because there was so many girls that didn’t like the Girl Scouting program,” she explained. “They were having all sorts of court cases so that year that I entered seventh grade is actually the first year I was able to be involved in scouting, because that’s when they allowed it.”
It wasn’t much of a challenge, according to Evans, with her past experience learning the material outside of the program.
“It was a little bit different,” she recalled. “I wouldn’t say it was tremendously difficult. I joined because I wanted to have those skills, especially within just knowing that my brothers also had them and I thought it would be cool to know how to do that stuff.”
However, being part of the new wave of Girl Scouts joining Scouts USA for the first time had led to Evans experiencing and witnessing backlash for her participation.
“It was my second year attending Merit Badge University (MBU),” Evans explained. “I didn’t notice anything my first year, but then my second year there were a lot of girls that were being bullied or ridiculed. It would be something like getting called names that are not scout-appropriate. In the hallways, I’m the type of person that when I see someone I turn around and I would wave, they would be flipping me off.”
Heartbroken by witnessing so many of her fellow scouts dealing with bullying to the point of quitting, she was determined to not let the bullies win.
“My output on that and what I did in response to that was prove them wrong, which is one of my favorite things to do,” she stated.
Evans had her opportunity to prove she was meant to be there through the Scouts’ selection of the spirit stick.
“You have to be nominated within your troop and then you turn in applications at the beginning of the three-day period that they have to watch that scout,” Evans explained. “They only give out two, one in council and one out of council.”
Within the three-day period, Evans was awarded the spirit stick.
“I was the first ever girl recipient and one of my favorite things was going up there and seeing all the girls, because they were going like ‘Yes!’ and they were so excited,” Evans commented. “That made me happy about that and then next year there was another girl that got it and every time I think about that, I’m like, ‘See, we’re allowed to be here and we’re doing better than you right now.”’
The senior still continues to prove herself within Scouts as she finishes up constructing her Eagle Scout service project, a task set for potential Eagle Scouts to create something that will benefit the community. She wanted to thank her sponsors, The Leadership Center, Aurora Cooperative and Sack Lumber for providing the materials to construct her project.
Evans commented that she is looking forward to Saturday, April 6, when she will have her Eagle Scout Court of Honor.
“I got my board review in December and that was when it was considered completed,” she said. “You can get your ceremony at any point after that. The issue with that is usually ceremonies would be held on a weekend or week day and we went straight into speech season, which started the first weekend in January.”
Amidst her celebration of finding a date for her Eagle Scout Court of Honor, she recently participated in the district speech competition having placed 5th in Entertainment. She also performed with her classmates in the spring play production on ‘Murder on the 518’ and is competing in Unified Track while completing her volunteer work with National Honor Society.
While Evans has the possibility advancing further with the Eagle Scout program, she said her excitement in scouting will be in watching her younger siblings progress as scouts themselves.
“My younger brother, Lucas, he’s going to hopefully be getting started on his here pretty soon,” she commented. “Then after him is Dominic, he’s got a couple years yet. Laramie is also within Scouts BSA and she’s in fifth grade right now so she just started and then Kenai hopefully it’s going to get to that point. He’s in first grade right now so we got a little bit.”
After graduation, Evans is planning to attend Peru State.
“Not the country, I get asked that a lot,” she commented. “I’m going to study wildlife ecology and management.”
Her inspiration for her major came from her current work with multiple conservation groups throughout Nebraska.
“I’m involved in Prairie Plains Resource Institute and work with them a lot,” Evans stated. “Hopefully from Peru, I’m going to get to have an internship at either Lincoln or Omaha Zoo or Indian caves. The lady that I work with at Prairie Plains is in close contact with them so she got me an application and hopefully that will work out.”
Having reached the top of her Scout journey, Evans had advice to give girls who may still struggle within Scouts.
“People will criticize you and some will go as far as to tell you that you can’t succeed, but what decides if you can succeed and obtain your goals is you,” she stated. “Not your parents, not your friends and not other scouts. You get out of scouting what you are willing to put into it.”