Local Scout is in first class of female Eagles honored nationally
The senior patrol leader of Campbell Troop 2330 is among the first class of female Eagle Scouts to be recognized nationally. Cupertino resident Erin Handelsman, 13, an eighth-grader at Kennedy Middle School, earned her Eagle rank by leading a team of 18 friends and family members in building four redwood benches for the campus of Congregation Beth David in Saratoga.
Erin and seven other female scouts represented the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of BSA at a Feb. 8 naming ceremony. Until two years ago, Eagle Scout was a rank reserved for members of the Boy Scouts of America; since that organization opened up to females in February 2019, girls ages 11-17 have been able to join Scouts BSA and work their way from Tenderfoots to Eagles.
The Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of BSA has more than 10,000 Scouts, 1,500 of whom are females. Erin is the youngest member of the council to achieve the Eagle rank, and she is the second from Troop 2330 to do so.
Erin’s Eagle Scout project took 180 hours over 45 days to complete. She has been attending Congregation Beth David since she was a kindergartner and wanted to give back her synagogue. She received enough donations toward her project that she was able to pay it forward and donated the remaining balance of $180 to Congregation Beth David for Youth Activities. Erin herself is part of a teen program at the synagogue that meets weekly.
Erin’s Scouting peers elected her to the Order of the Arrow, the National Honor Society of Scouts BSA. The order is made up of Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives: “To help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
When not busy with Scouting, Erin is a forward left striker on her soccer team and maintains straight A’s in all her classes. She’s also learning Hebrew and is teaching herself to play the guitar.
Contact Anne Gelhaus at 408-200-1051.