Girl Scout Tiffany Hoang earned the prestigious Gold Award in 2018.
It’s no simple task, requiring several ambitious community projects along the journey. And, annually, fewer than 6% of Girl Scouts achieve the citation.
But Hoang did not stop there. At a ceremony on Monday, Feb. 8, the Fountain Valley High senior will formally enter an esteemed new world — the brother/sisterhood of Eagle Scouts.
That milestone makes Hoang the first Vietnamese-American in Southern Californian to earn the highest awards issued by both the Girl Scouts’ and the Boy Scouts.
Hoang now boasts two of the cherished sashes, each replete in colorfully embroidered merit badges for activities such as swimming, camping and painting. And there’s been no double dipping. For the second round of feats, she had to start from scratch.
Opportunity knocked almost exactly two years ago, when the Boy Scouts program became Scouts BSA and let girls into the fold. It meant girls could compete in such venerable Boy Scouting events as the Pinewood Derby, and it gave them a path to earn an Eagle Scout.
“I was really excited. It gives girls another challenge,” Hoang said. “I started working on my Eagle Scout award right away.”
Not everyone reacted with such enthusiasm. The bigger tent was met with displeasure by, among others, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., which has filed a lawsuit against its counterpart claiming unfair competition and trademark infringement.
But sharing a coed umbrella is nothing new for Liên Đoàn Chi Lăng Troop 2279. Founded in 1979, by Vietnamese refugee Ly Le, the Santa Ana-based troop has been home to both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts throughout its existence.
“We are proof that Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts can coexist,” said Le, 65, whose two adult daughters went through Girl Scouts. “I don’t see any conflict at all.”
Le served as a Boy Scout while growing up in Saigon. Not long after arrival here, he started up the Orange County troop as a way to offer refugee children a chance to socialize and stay in touch with their heritage.
“In many immigrant families, both parents worked long hours and kids spent a lot of time on their own,” Le said. “Scouting gave kids a place to be.”
Now, for the most part, it’s the the children and grandchildren of refugees who comprise 85-member Troop 2279.
Hoang was 6 when she signed up. “My parents didn’t know what was scouting even was – they said, ‘Just do whatever they tell you to do,’” Hoang recalled with a laugh.
Over the years, she has made what she describes as “lifelong friendships” while experiencing adventures in nature she might not otherwise have known. “I probably never would have gone camping if not for Girl Scouts,” Hoang said. “My troop goes camping every few months. It’s stress-reducing to be outdoors.”
Her longtime Girl Scout leader, Charles Nguyen, enlisted in the troop as a teen in 1987. “There were a lot of Vietnamese gangs in the ’80s,” Nguyen said. “Boy Scouts gave kids something productive to do.”
The Irvine resident got involved again as a dad. “Four kids and 20 years later, I came back,” he said.
Nguyen’s older son is an Eagle Scout and his younger son a Life Scout. His twin 12-year-old daughters are Girl Scouts who, Nguyen said, “will follow in Tiffany’s footsteps” working for the dual top awards.
Boys and girls all meet together for four hours every Sunday and even go on joint camping trips. Of course, as they blossom into teens, crushes can develop.
“But that doesn’t happen very often,” Hoang said. “It would be kind of weird. We’ve known each other for so long we’re like brothers and sisters.”
Adding Boy Scout goals to her repertoire came naturally, she said: “I’d been watching what the guys do for years.”
For her Gold Award, Hoang coordinated a workshop for at-risk children to learn about dental hygiene. Most of her Eagle Scout project – organizing drop-offs for elderly people isolated in nursing homes – took place during the pandemic.
“Girls don’t have to choose just one of two paths now,” Nguyen said. “They can choose both.”