One of the Brownie moms in the troop my wife leads called to drop her daughter out of the troop for financial reasons. At my urging, Mom was told that there was grant money to pay for her membership, vest and patches. That "grant money" came out of my wallet.
Once her mom got back to work the "grant money" was used up.
We had a boy that was going to drop out because mom couldn't afford it, amazingly my son had "outgrown" his shirt that we just bought I couldn't believe I only had time to put the patches on before he out grew it and the troop happened to have a scholarship for the dues
As for the knife it bums me out that the BSA does not allow fixed blade knives