Helping Girl Scouts keeps Winterich busy.
Original article published in Edwardsville Intelligencer on 12/10/23
When it comes to Ronnie Winterich and her volunteer work for the Girl Scouts, one thing – or in her case, one troop – led to another.
“I’ve been part of Girl Scouts since my oldest daughter was in first grade,” said Winterich, who lives in Collinsville. “I started her as a Daisy and followed the path of being a parent volunteer. Our troop leader moved, so I stepped up to be the troop leader.
“Then I started a troop for my youngest daughter and there was another troop where their leader moved away, so I’ve been a leader for three troops for a while. When our service unit manager’s daughter graduated, I stepped in for her to be the service unit manager. I also stepped in to be the treasurer.”
Wearing multiple hats for the Girl Scouts, combined with a full-time job in St. Louis, doesn’t leave Winterich with much spare time. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Finding parent volunteers is getting harder because everyone is so busy,” Winterich said. “I picked up several roles and ended up being the event coordinator when we tried to do different events every month. A lot of troops step up and do a service unit level event.
“We picked up a food drive that we do every fall as a sock hop. We also have a daddy-daughter dance and troops step up to run that event.”
Another event that Winterich helps to organize every February is “World Thinking Day,” where participating troops pick a country and talk about their Girl Guides, which are the international equivalent of Girl Scouts.
“The girls talk about different things about the country and bring a food item that’s popular there for everyone to sample,” Winterich said. “The girls get a passport and get it stamped and learn about all of the different countries.”
About six years ago, Winterich stepped up to be a camp director, and every summer she runs a weeklong day camp with the help of parent volunteers.
“We have anywhere from 70 to 150 girls, and we pick a different theme every year,” Winterich said. “We have guests come in. World Bird Sanctuary teaches the girls about their birds, and we have an astronomy club to teach the girls about astronomy.
“We also do a progression where we teach the girls about safety, first aid and knot tying. We teach them how to hike and identify things. We teach the seven principles of ‘Leave No Trace’ to leave the Earth better than we found it. We also do the fun Girl Scout things like crafts and learning about animals, and there was one evening where we did a night hike and saw turtles laying eggs, which was the coolest thing.”
Winterich notes that volunteers are the lifeblood of organizations such as the Girl Scouts.
“The volunteers that have stuck with me over the years and the new ones that we add each year are fantastic,” Winterich said. “We can’t run things like the day camp without volunteers. We’ve become a big family and we look forward to it every year.”
Winterich can’t imagine what life would be like for her daughters, Keira, 17; and Zoey, 12; without their Girl Scout experiences.
“Scouting is important because the girls get to experience things they’ve never done,” Winterich said. “It also builds skills that they can carry with them into the future. Keira is a senior at Collinsville High School, but she’s going to SWIC (Southwestern Illinois College) as part of their Running Start program.
“I think Scouting has helped to build her self-confidence and her ability to take the initiative. Keira has had to step up and help me lead girls, and the great thing about Girl Scouts is that you learn these skills and then progress to teach the younger girls how to do things.”
As part of the Running Start program, Keira attends classes full-time at SWIC instead of attending classes at Collinsville. She also works full-time at a kennel.
“She’s able to balance those things, and she can participate in extracurricular activities at Collinsville, but with her working full-time and joining clubs on SWIC’s campus, that doesn’t leave her much extra time,” Winterich said.
Community service is a big part of being a Girl Scout, and Keira’s troop partners with Friends of Valley View Cemetery, a nonprofit group that takes care of the cemetery in Edwardsville.
“A lot of their family members are buried out there and there was no maintenance service to take care of it,” Winterich said. “Keira did her Silver Award there, where she helped with a cleanup project.
“She built six wooden enclosures for trash cans and bought them six brand-new trash cans. For every flag holiday, like the Fourth of July and Veterans Day, we would go out there and puts flags on every grave in the cemetery.”
Selling Girl Scout cookies, of course, has been another priority for Winterich and her troops.
“It’s changed a lot over the years, partly due to COVID in recent years, but the Girl Scouts have been flexible and adaptive to change,” Winterich said. “During the pandemic, we did a lot of things virtually, including school and Scout meetings.
“Learning the virtual world and how to interact and engage while not being face to face is important. The cookie business is a full-blown business, and the girls are doing marketing, sales, money handling and interacting with customers. All of it is another confidence builder and getting the girls out there and learning is great experience as well.”
Winterich has worked as director of retail and programs for KidSmart, a nonprofit based out of Maryland Heights, Missouri, since Feb. 1 of this year.
“KidSmart was started 20 years ago by a kindergarten teacher that saw a need,” Winterich said. “A lot of students come to school without the supplies they need, and especially this year with inflation impacting everything, a lot of parents have to choose between paying bills and paying for food, and supplies might not be something they can afford to do.
“We service schools that are at the poverty level of 70% or higher to qualify for a free lunch and the majority of our schools are at 100%. Our mission is to empower children by providing free essential tools for learning.”
This summer, KidSmart did its annual “Push for Pencils” campaign.
“Starbucks is one of our partners and we had 82 companies put out collection boxes, whether it was for their employees or their customers,” Winterich said. “They collected supplies for us, and we were able to push those supplies back into the schools.
“In August, we were able to provide over $1 million worth of supplies to teachers. The first day we had a big drive-through at Ballpark Village and the second day we did the same thing at our building. Everything was from physical donations and or cash donations to us and we leveraged those to get great deals from different organizations for a fraction of the cost that you would normally pay.”
Winterich added that Walmart has been another key corporate partner for KidSmart.
“We had 18 local Walmart stores allow us to be there for a tax-free weekend and we were able to raise over 400,000 units of school supplies,” Winterich said.
KidSmart bought a building in Bridgeton in 2019 with plans to renovate its free store, which is the largest in Missouri and serves the entire state. But the COVID-19 pandemic brought those plans to a temporary halt.
“We had the funds raised to complete the remodel and build the new free store, but because of inflation, we’re back to the drawing board,” Winterich said. “We’re trying to raise the funds to complete our renovation.
“Once we do, we’re going to have a 6,000-square-foot free store for teachers to come and get the supplies they need for their classroom. We’re also working on a program where teachers can log in and order online and we’ll have a section of our warehouse dedicated to filling online orders to deliver to those schools.”
Winterich worked in retail for 20 years before coming to KidSmart and she feels that experience is beneficial in her current job.
“I worked 15 years for Kohl’s, which is such a great company, and I loved my job there,” Winterich said. “I was the store manager at the Edwardsville location, but I’ve done a lot of community service and I was approached by KidSmart and they talked about their mission.
“I felt that’s where I needed to be because I’m able to help as many people as I can. At KidSmart, we have a staff of 10 people, five full-time and five part-time, and everything else is done through volunteer work.”
Written By
Scott Marion is a feature reporter for the Intelligencer. A longtime sportswriter, he has worked for the Intelligencer since December 2013. He is a graduate of Brentwood High School and the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
December 13, 2022
