'Soul Sisters': Seven decades of love, memories, and friendship, thanks to Milwaukee Girl Scout Troop 226

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It's the year 1953.

Dozens of second-grade girls at St. Mary's Help of Christians in West Allis are excitedly making their way into the Girl Scouts Brownie program.

By the time they hit the third grade, the girls had officially advanced to the coveted ranking of Girl Scout.

Thus began the formation of Troop 226, led by a woman named Loralie Draeger.

Throughout elementary and middle school, the group sold cookies (back then they were only 35 cents a package!), learned various life skills like sewing and camping, and sang Christmas carols to orphans.

In eighth grade, Troop 226 was awarded the Marian Award for their efforts -- the highest award a Catholic Girl Scout could receive.

The girls continued through high school, working tirelessly and proudly to honor their Girl Scout title.

Little did they know that the bonds they formed together would last a lifetime.

70 years later, it's the year 2023.

Those second-graders are now aged 77 and gathered around a table in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, sharing a warm meal of corned beef, cabbage, and homemade Irish soda bread.

Eleven of them remain close, meeting for their monthly gathering.

Loralie Draeger is now 94-and-a-half, and beaming as brightly as ever, in a hot pink sweater.

"The first time I met them, they were dancing on the tables in the bottom of the church!" Draeger laughingly told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White. "I don’t even know what I said, but I was shocked. Girls? What are you doing?"

She described the group as "good, bad, and indifferent."

"I hope they liked me," Draeger said. "They’re very interesting and mostly I don’t talk, I like to listen to them, and I miss them when I don't see them."

One of the scouts, Joanie Thames, said Draeger was "a wonderful leader."

"She was there for everything," Thames recounted. "It's been a true experience for all of us."

Barb Pye, another member of Troop 226, said Draeger taught them "how to be good people."

"You're not related blood-wise, but we certainly are every other way that's possible," Pye said. "She keeps us together, she does."

Barbara Jeske, a third member of the troop, said she lived next door to Draeger before joining the Scouts.

“Even throughout my teen years, my first heartbreak, she was there at the kitchen table with a coffee consoling me, 'it’ll get better, Barb, it’ll get better,' so I just remember her as compassionate and fun," Jeske said.

Over their monthly meetings through the decades, the group began referring to themselves as "soul sisters."

“I think those bonds that are forged in childhood and in high school, they’re not easily broken," Jeske said. "You forge friendships throughout your career, you forge them with your neighbors, and any hobbies you have, but this group is kind of just forged on childhood and growing together for a long time, knowing each other for a long time, and it’s special to be able to continue that.”

Pye agreed, noting that the bond between the group wouldn't have been nearly as strong if it weren't for Draeger.

“Everybody as we get to be this age has some issues, but we’re there to support each other and that has a lot to do with her, keeping us all together," Pye said. “Honestly and truthfully, if she wasn’t so strong and determined, and I’d say stubborn, I don’t think we’d be where we are today."

Thames added that Troop 226's relationship is as special as the powerhouse in pink at the center of it all.

“We’ve gone through a lot of family trauma, death, sickness, kind of like your wedding vows, in sickness and in health," Thames said. “I can’t tell you the endless support, endless, that we have given each other. This is family, us girls and Loralie."