Bill Ryan/The Gazette Patricia Harris of Myersville stands among thousands of Girl Scout cookies waiting to be delivered this week in the Frederick area. Harris has served as a volunteer for the Girl Scouts for more than 13 years.

The Myersville Girl Scout troop leader has fostered leadership and life skills for five girls, now high school seniors in their last year in the club.

Last January, Harris, 57, earned the highest honor bestowed on an adult Girl Scout -- the Penn Laurel Charm Award -- for her lifetime of community service after being secretly nominated by her daughter. She now wears the dainty medallion as a necklace.

"The award is very, very special," said Harris, who was surprised with the honor at a January Penn Laurel Girl Scout awards ceremony. "It became more special when [I learned] my daughter initiated the nomination."

Harris has served with the Penn Laurel Girl Scouts, a Pennsylvania-based group that includes Frederick County, for more than 13 years as a Girl Scout leader, assistant leader, day camp registrar and bake-off committee chair.

"You have to demonstrate," Harris said. "You can't just tell the kids 'Go out there and do something.' You have to do it."

Other Girl Scout volunteers, such as co-leader of Troop 1105 and longtime friend Cheryl Dougher of Middletown, said Harris is tireless.

"She's wonderful to work with," said Dougher, also head of the Girl Scouts product distribution committee, which this month coordinates Girl Scout cookie deliveries. "She has a lot of time and patience. I don't know how she does it. And she works full-time."

Harris took a day off work March 4 to help Dougher distribute 1,400 cases of pre-ordered cookies from the Myersville Town Hall to 27 troop leaders.

Dougher's daughter, Kristin, is a member of the Hi Lo Neighborhood troop in the Middletown-Myersville-Jefferson area, which will soon include Brunswick. Members of Troop 1105 also include Jamie Fisher, Amanda Baher, Margaret Wunderlick, and Harris' daughter, Charlotte, all seniors at Middletown High School.

"Pat's very easy-going, but she holds the girls to task," said Dougher, who has chaperoned trips with Harris to local sites such as the National Aquarium in Baltimore. "Sometimes they want to take the easy road, but she's not going to let them fly by."

Harris was born and raised in St. Augustine, Fla., where her mother still lives. With a professional firefighter father and stay-at-home mother, Harris said she had a fortunate childhood with moral role models.

As a youth, she was an avid piano player and enjoyed participating in 4-H agriculture club events. During her 10 years in the 4-H, she earned several awards, including the national dairy foods award and was a member of the state vegetable judging team.

Graduating from Berry College, Harris earned three degrees -- home economics, chemistry and general education. After college, she move to Maryland's Eastern Shore and worked for a short time as a governess in Baltimore. Later she was hired by Mercantile Bank as a teller, a banking career that would span 30 years. She is now vice president of marketing for Mercantile Bank in Hagerstown.

Formerly Patricia Menser, Harris met her husband, Lt. Chuck Harris, during several camping trips with her friends to Gambrill State Park. Lt. Harris, now deputy regional manager for the Western Region of Gambrill State Park, was a park ranger who registered campers. After four years of casual chats, she accepted his offer for a date.

The first nine years of their marriage, the couple moved 13 times before settling in Myersville. Their two children ­ Charlotte, 17, and Jimmy, 16, have achieved the highest Scout awards -- the Girl Scout Gold Award and Eagle Scout. With her children also active in high school athletics, from track and field to swimming, Harris is in the Middletown High booster club. She is also on the school's Parent Teacher Organization.

Her troop leader years began when Charlotte joined the Daisies -- the first of five Girl Scout age groups, which range from age 5 through 18. Harris, who had trained to become an assistant leader just before the primary leader moved, said "It was be a leader, or the troop was going to fold."

Since then she has witnessed her troop grow from "silly, giggling middle-schoolers to competent young women who still love pizza" and her role has changed from activities instructor to mentor.

Interested in history, Harris last year joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization that aims to preserve American history and promote patriotism and education. She said she will participate more activity after her troop members graduate to "adulthood" this summer, a transition marked with a bridge-crossing ceremony.

Her interest in history blossomed during her six years researching her family tree, an ongoing hobby.

A member of Holy Family Catholic Church in Middletown, Harris is a Eucharistic minister and helps her husband manage the parish's "jubilee garden" and distribute its produce to local food banks. She is a former chair of the pastoral council and frequently for the church stitches baptismal bibs.

Her other post-Troop 1105 plans are focused on community service. She's mulling volunteering at a local hospital and participating in the Penn Laurel Girl Scout Council. For the next two years, she will continue working with her son's Boy Scout troop and remain active in high school parent organizations.

Harris said her years of community service activities, such as with the Girl Scouts, have rewarded her with memories.

"Life changes," she said. "Some days it's a juggling act, but it's always a pleasure."