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| Volunteer celebrated for 42 years in Girl Scouts |
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| Written by Maddy Houk | Patterson Irrigator | |
| Friday, 25 July 2008 | |
 On my honor: Leta Lauret of Patterson takes a moment to admire the badges and pins from her years as a Girl Scout volunteer. Photo by Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator Lauret has served in many roles during those years, including leader, service unit chairwoman and co-chairwoman of cookie sales in Patterson. “She’s just been wonderful in all the years she’s been in Girl Scouts,” local Girl Scout leader Helen Hoxie said. “Leta’s brought in her old troop photos and shared her experience with the girls and leaders. She’s cookie chairperson and is reliable and always there.” Lauret started in Scouting when she was 11 years old, after her family moved from Utah to California. She joined Troop 1 in Sunnyvale because her girlfriends were in the troop. Lauret was a year younger than the other girls, though, and when they were in high school and more interested in boys and planning dances, she dropped out. As the years went by, Lauret went to college, met her husband, Tom, and married him in 1953. The couple’s three sons — David, Jim and Mike — were born, followed by daughters Cynthia and Cheryl. So Lauret first became active in Cub Scouts, as a den mother. When Tom Lauret began work for the U.S. Navy in 1966, the family moved to Guam. The Girl Scouts organized there a few years later, and Lauret served as a leader. She continued in Scouting after the family moved to Hawaii in 1971 as her daughters moved up the ranks. “I got recruited because of my experience in Guam,” Lauret said. “The whole time we were in Hawaii — 15 years — I was active.” Lauret said the people she met there were influential in her life, so she wanted to keep an association with them. She became a trainer of new leaders, giving first-aid training and troop camp training with Girl Scout Council of the Pacific, now known as Girl Scout Council of Hawaii. Lauret was also service unit chairwoman for the windward side of Oahu, and her husband served on the Girl Scout committee. “That was a job,” Tom Lauret remembers. “Everything was chaotic, because of redistricting of the area for Scouting.” In the mid-1980s, Leta Lauret was a leader for a patrol of eight girls who attended A Wider Opportunity, known as Na Mea Iki, Hawaii. The girls traveled around the islands of Oahu, Maui and Hawaii, visiting and taking part in activities with other Girl Scouts. The Laurets returned to the mainland in 1985 and lived in Sunnyvale before moving to Patterson in March 1987. One of Lauret’s Avon customers at that time was a Brownie leader in town and asked Lauret for help with her troop. “I made myself available to all the troops,” Lauret said. “I would go in and do cake- or cookie-decorating with all the troops once in a while.” When Shirley Borchardt was service unit chairwoman, Lauret volunteered to head up magazine subscription drives and other projects. Later, when her neighbor, Cheryl Young, was service unit chairwoman, Lauret became co-chair of Girl Scout cookie sales with Vicki La Torre. “My job was to contact merchants, get permission to have cookie booths in front of the stores and to schedule the troops to sell at each store,” Lauret said. Lauret now leaves Girl Scouts with good memories of her more than 40 years. “It’s just one of the things we’ve always enjoyed,” Lauret said. “I’ve met the nicest people — my best friends have come from Girl Scouts.”
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