Hudson’s first female Eagle Scout earns rank in record time

by Michele Collins

Hudson has its first female Eagle Scout.

Audrey Fuller, 18, earned all 21 Boy Scout merit badges and service and leadership requirements in just over two years. The Hudson High School senior also holds the Gold Award, the highest rank of Girl Scouts. 

Scouting is a big aspect of Fuller’s life. Her parents are Scout leaders and her brother, Kyle, is also an Eagle Scout. The family says scouting is kind of like sports for other families, they do it every week of the year.

Fuller herself said Scouts is “like my second life” and watching her brother go through the process of becoming an Eagle Scout inspired her own Eagle journey.

“I honestly have always wanted to be a Boy Scout,” she said. “My brother was my role model. When I was young the only thing available to girls was Girl Scouts, so I joined that. But when they said girls could join Boy Scouts in 2019, I said to my mom, ‘I’m in. I want to be an Eagle Scout ,too.’”

Fuller’s mom, Hanna Cajan, agreed to be Scoutmaster for the all-girl Boy Scout troop #7327, and Audrey got going quickly.

“For a boy who crosses over into Boy Scouts [from lower-level Scouting], he is about 13 and has maybe 5 or 6 years to complete all the requirements for Eagle Scout.  But for Audrey, she only had 2 years and four months before she was 18 and aged out of Boy Scouts. So, she worked tremendously hard,” Cajan said.

Fuller’s merit badges included some that took as long as three months to complete. Also, there are service and leadership requirements and things like adventure camping. She did it all and did it during a pandemic.

Fuller completed the process last year, but her Eagle Scout ceremony had to be postponed. She was set to receive her official Eagle Scout badge in the Court of Honor at Camp Manatoc on May 22, days before her high school graduation.

She said the best part of earning her Eagle Scout designation is the leadership skills she gained.

“My Eagle project was building a gaga pit for a local church. I had to develop the plan, work with like 20 volunteers, schedule everything. It was not only myself I was responsible for. I had to make sure people didn’t get overheated and had stuff to eat [and] we had all the materials. It was so much to think about, but amazing too,” she said.

Fuller’s gaga pit (a wooden pit that allows children to play a bouncing ball-type game) is at the Fishcreek Nazarene Church in Stow and is already a well-loved activity. This makes her heart swell with pride.

“I just feel so good, like the kids love it, and I loved making it for them,” she said.

With her Eagle Scout accomplishment, Fuller has now inspired some of the younger girls in her troop to work towards their Eagle Scout rank.

“I am just humbled, by being a role model to them. I just feel so good knowing they will have the opportunity to learn what I did.”

Fuller’s mom is even more proud.

“To know the Eagle Scout process, to have been through it with my son, and now to have both my children Eagle Scouts, it makes me so proud, Cajan said. “I have seen boys go into the process and come out leaders, like new people, it changes them. And to know that girls now have this opportunity just makes me so happy.”

What’s up next for the ambitious teen? Fuller is headed to the University of Akron, where she will major in criminal intelligence analysis, hoping to one day work for a government or private agency. She said she knows it will be hard work, but this Eagle Scout is not afraid of that . ∞