RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS; WITH THANKS: MILLIE TURNER EMBODIES THE SPIRIT OF GIRL SCOUTING

For 28 years, Millie Turner of Cape Girardeau has been synonymous with Girl Scouting, first as a volunteer and then as a staff member.

"She's really the spirit behind the Girl Scout office," says Denise Stewart, who heads up the Otahki Girl Scout Council.

How do you say thanks to someone who's gone above and beyond every expectation and has lived her life helping others?

The council recently honored Millie with its Thanks II Badge. She is only the third person in Otahki Council history to have received this high honor and the first staff member.

She received the Thanks Badge in 1982 for her volunteer efforts.

"I couldn't believe it then," she said. "Thanks Badges were awarded to people who were up there in the clouds."

The Thanks II Badge simply left her speechless.

Unfortunately, Millie missed the standing ovation offered by a room full of volunteers and staff members when it was announced at the recent volunteer banquet.

Millie is fighting the hardest battle of her life. She was diagnosed with cancer last August, and she's grudgingly retiring at the end of the month.

"I'm not really retiring," she said from her home last week. "I'm going to become a volunteer again."

The comment elicited a big smile from Stewart, who looks upon Millie as both a mentor and role model. The two joined as staff members 15 years ago within six months of each other. They still talk as often as Millie's health permits.

Millie lives the Girl Scout Promise and Law, says Stewart. "She is a woman of honor who tries to do her best at all times. Anyone who knows Millie has a story of a time she helped someone who needed a place to stay, or money, or an idea for a project, or someone to run a project."

Even in sickness, Millie quietly provides a role model of courage and strength.

"She smiles through her pain, works when she is tired and hurting, and offers service to us while we feel helpless to help her," said Stewart.

With three daughters and a son, Girl Scouting seemed a natural choice for Millie. At the time, her family lived in Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

"Every community is looking for Girl Scout leaders," she recalls with a smile. "I had been a 4-H leader so I knew a little about the Girl Scout program."

From the beginning, Millie was hooked.

"I was a sewing Girl Scout, not the camper Girl Scout," she smiles. Millie loved to help the young girls on their sewing badge. Camping was a necessary evil.

She remembers camping trips where tents were floating down the hill or awaking in the morning to find ice on the drinks. She reminded Stewart of the time she was awakened by a horse peaking in the window. The two laughed at the memory.

Through Girl Scouting, Millie has seen both adult volunteers and the Scouts themselves grow in self confidence and leadership.

Her daughter Julie once climbed 10 mountains as part of the Girl Scout adventure program in Colorado. "I know she uses that example today," said Millie. "It was a confidence builder that helped her get through law school. If I can climb 10 mountains, I can do this."

One of Millie's passions has been to involve more adults in Girl Scouting, beyond the scope of parents. University students and senior citizens are areas Millie has targeted for great growth potential for adult volunteers.

She has also worked on alternative ways to deliver the Girl Scout program such as the Basketball Interest Troop, in which the leader is also the coach. It targets junior high-age girls and meets at the Salvation Army. That program earned the local council national recognition and has been modeled by councils across the country.

Her inspiration, dedication and ideas have helped shape the Otahki Council into the success it is today. It serves one in six eligible girls in eight counties in Southeast Missouri and three in Southern Illinois, which is well above the national average of 1 in 9 girls. In Cape Girardeau City, one in four girls are Scouts. In all, the council serves almost 3,000 girls with the help of 1,000 adult volunteers.

Many of those girls and volunteers have been touched in some way by Millie's work. She was especially good at mustering resources and motivating volunteers.

"I learned long ago to accept every person for what they are," she says. "Every volunteer has something to give."

Perhaps Jacque Brotherton, a past troop leader, summed up Millie's contributions best in one of five letters of nominations received for the Thanks II Badge: "Millie is Girl Scouting. I know of no one in this council who has put in the time or energy that she has. Working with her was like working with a ball of fire."

She may be retiring, but Millie's heart will always remain with Girl Scouting.