Two schoolgirls have become the first female Cub Scouts in Bermuda.

Now Cara Bernard and Mackenzie Heaney will attend their first Jamboree camping trip on Paget Island next month.

Mackenzie, from Warwick, said: “I feel nervous because I don’t know what’s going to happen, even though I’ve been camping before.”

The ten-year-old Warwick Academy pupil said that she preferred the Cub Scouts to the girls’ counterparts, the Brownies.

She explained: “All of my friends went to Brownies and I generally find that all they did was really girlie stuff and I’m not one of those girls.

“I go outside a ton and I’m a very adventurous person.”

Mackenzie said that she learnt survival skills in cubs training last autumn, which also included first aid techniques.

She added that being the only girl in her six, or Cub Scout team, used to be uncomfortable for her.

Mackenzie said: “When I first joined it felt kind of awkward because there wasn’t anybody I knew there apart from Cara.

“There were a bunch of these boys just staring at me like ‘what is this girl doing here?’ and I found it really, really awkward, but now I’ve gotten used to it.”

Cara added: “I felt better knowing that Mackenzie was there and she was kind of going through the same thing, but I already knew two people there — Dylan, my brother, and his friend, Joseph.”

The 11-year-old, also a Warwick Academy student, said that her brother was the main reason that she wanted to join the Cub Scouts.

Cara explained: “My mom wanted me to do Brownies, but my brother was doing cubs so I kind of wanted to do it.

“My brother would go out every Friday night to Warwick Academy and go on the playground, which I really wanted to do.”

Cara, from Warwick, said that she enjoyed the Cub Scout emphasis on community service.

She added: “We learnt how to help people who were blind and have a disability and what to do when we’re in a situation that we have to help them.”

Both said other girls should consider the Cub Scouts because it was a good way to learn new skills and make friends.

Cara added: “If there’s a group that no other girls are in then they can invite a friend to come with them.”

Geoff Rothwell, the chief commissioner of Scouts, said that the Cub Scouts had always been open to girls but that none had joined.

He added he was pleased to see that change.

Mr Rothwell said: “I think it’s been a long time coming. At this point in time, to think that we would exclude people on gender is just not the right thing to be doing.

He added: “I think having both genders in scouting adds a tremendous amount, it gives them an opportunity to just share and get to know one another on a level that you don’t get by meeting at school.”