Teen makes history as first female Eagle Scout in Hancock County

Lydia Eckleberry will go down in the history books as the first female to earn the rank of Eagle Scout in Hancock County. She was also the youngest, attaining the honor at the age of 12. "She's been breaking records like crazy," said her father, Huck Eckleberry. "She's also the youngest Eagle Scout in the state of Ohio, the second youngest female Eagle Scout in the United States." Lydia is a founding member of St. Marks BSA Troop 308 (Black Swamp Area Council). "I really like it. It's pretty fun. I've met a lot of friends along the way," said Lydia, who is now a 13-year-old Glenwood Middle School student. Her Eagle Scout project involved retiring 1,460 American flags. Lydia seemed destined to become an Eagle Scout. Her dad, uncles and two older brothers are all Eagles. And her grandfather, Kenneth Eckleberry, was a ranger at the Boy Scout's Camp Berry for five years. Huck is a scoutmaster for Troop 308. "It pretty much started for me when I brought a flyer home from Lincoln about joining cub scouts," he recalled. "My mom knew about the program. I think three of her brothers were in scouts when she was younger. She has two brothers who were Eagle Scouts as well." Lydia said she wanted to be in scouts even before girls were allowed to join the organization. "I never wanted to be in Girl Scouts because I wanted to be with my brothers," she explained. "I wanted to go to day camps with my brothers, but then I couldn't because I was a girl." However, Huck was able to sign her up as a sibling so she could tag along brothers Danger and Hazard Eckleberry. And when the Boy Scouts began to allow girls to join the organization in 2019, Lydia got her chance. She is one of five founding members of the troop that started the following year. They are part of the Arrowwood District which includes Hancock and Seneca counties. "So we were the first girls' troop there so we gathered up girls from all over because it doesn't seem to be very well know that girls can join, still to this day," said Huck. Lydia joined as a Cub Scout first. The following year, at the age of 10½, she crossed over to being a Scout. She is now the senior patrol leader of the girls' troop which has 10 members from Findlay, Mount Blanchard, Tiffin and Fostoria. "Girls need to be in their troop," Huck said. "They're allowed to be in Boy Scouts, which is now Scouts BSA, but they have to have their own troop." The girls and boys' troops meet at the same time at the DOCK at St. Marks. "They meet together and act as one troop," she said. Meetings are spent learning scouting skills and planning campouts and daytrips which they try to do once a month. They also talk about merit badges – there are a total of 139 available. Lydia has 33 badges while her brothers each have more than 60. "I'm trying to catch up," she said. Danger and Hazard both earned their Eagle Scout awards at the age of 14. Danger worked with two other scouts to put in a new boardwalk at Oakwoods Nature Preserve, while Hazard relaid the old brick sidewalk at the Little Red Schoolhouse. Lydia went a different route. She decided that she wanted to retire flags after attending an Order of the Arrow (OA) ordeal. She explained that OA is like an honor society that does service projects. "For our service project, we retired flags. So I had the idea from that," she said. She worked with the American Legion but also collected flags from the AMVETS, VFW, Scouts BSA office and the City of Findlay, as well as a post on Facebook. The retirement ceremonies were held at Camp Berry. Once all of the requirements for the project, an Eagle Scout board of review meets. Her review was held May 18. Her Eagle Court of Honor was Oct. 29. Lydia received her medal and badge from her scoutmaster, Linda Barclay. Becoming an Eagle Scout goes by rank, said Huck. "From start to finish, right on the days, you can achieve Eagle Scout in 19 months. Very, very rarely is it ever done," he said. Lydia worked on hers for 29 months. Normally it takes six to seven years, according to Huck. The average age of someone attaining Eagle Scout is 17½. "And she was 12 which she kind of had an advantage because her whole life she's been around scouting," he said. After becoming an Eagle Scout, Lydia attended National Youth Leadership Training, Camp Berry's 100th anniversary summer camp and then the 2023 National Jamboree. Huck said she is the youngest female Eagle Scout to ever attend a national jamboree. Lydia plans to stay in scouting and she'd like to see other girls join, too. She hopes to become a scoutmaster one day. "When some of them get their Eagle, they're done," said Huck. "They leave scouts until later down the road when they have their own kids, then they sometimes come back in. She's one of the rare ones on that where she's got her Eagle and she's staying in and helping everybody else get theirs." Lydia hopes to raise awareness for the program as well, he said. "Hey, here in Findlay we've got a girls' troop. You can be an Eagle Scout, too," he said.