Dartmouth welcomes its first woman eagle scout

It was pouring rain the day Dartmouth Scouting Troop 13’s Elizabeth Santos, 18, completed her eagle scout project, making her the first woman eagle scout in the town of Dartmouth.

At the Rod & Gun Club in New Bedford, Santos and about 15 other scouts worked together to dig holes in the ground and cement in the poles for the gate rebuild project. 

“It was a tsunami we had going on,” Santos joked.

Beforehand, Santos had removed the existing gate and did some welding work to ensure it was sturdy for the club’s historical society. Additionally, she constructed a new flag pole for the property by repurposing an old ship mast.

Together she and her group had accumulated 200 hours of community service to complete the projects, she said.

“I hope it’s an inspiration for all the younger girls,” Santos said of being the town’s first woman eagle scout. With most of her troop being in middle school, she said she hopes they see the importance and value of sticking with it.

“I want them to stay involved,” she said. “I want them to enjoy it.”

Santos joined Troop 13, an all-girls troop, back in 2019. Girls were given the opportunity to join scouting for the first time on Feb. 1, by the 19th she was enrolled. 

“But I like to say I’ve been scouting for 18 years because my three older brothers are all eagle scouts, so I’ve been doing it since I was very young,” she said, adding she additionally was a girl scout.

But within her six years of official scouting, Santos said she’s learned more than she has her whole life. Though she may be leaving, she said she still plans to stick around and help with the troop.

As a Chapter Chief in the Order of the Arrow, which Santos says is like an honor society, Santos leads approximately 100 scouts monthly through community service projects. But leadership wasn’t something that always came easy for her.

Santos said when she served as a senior patrol leader at a summer camp for the first time, she realized there are those who are made for leadership roles and those who are meant to grow into them — she fell among the latter. 

She reminisced of her time with scouts from the conference trip to Colorado, where she got to spend time with approximately 30,000 scouts, and the day-to-day activities of scouting, such as camping. 

Santos said she likes “just seeing them enjoying something I’ve been enjoying my whole life.”

Looking back on her time, she said she wouldn’t change a thing.

“It’s been the best six years of my life,” Santos said. “If I could relive these past six years over and over again, I would do it in a heartbeat. I have friends all over the world that I’ve met through scouting.”

She noted how one friend will be taking a trip up from Pennsylvania for her Court of Honor. 

“These are my people and I love it.”