Long after her daughter moved into adulthood, San Antonio Girl Scouts leader still going strong

A placard in the front yard of Annette Perez’s home on the Northwest Side lets passersby know that “an outstanding volunteer” lives there.

Two weeks ago, retired Marine Maj. Gen. Angie Salinas, CEO of Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, and director Renee Harvey presented Perez with the honor and the Thanks badge for giving back to the community and the Girl Scouts.

Salinas called Perez a one-of-a-kind volunteer and Girl Scout leader who fills an important role in girls’ lives.

“Annette has been a fearless leader and an empowering role model for girls in San Antonio for over 17 years,” Salinas said. “She has equipped hundreds of girls with the confidence and courage to speak up, seek challenges, learn from setbacks and help those in need. She inspires all of us to strive to be better and to do more.”

The single mother of two children has been the Girl Scout leader of Troop 384 for nearly 20 years, mentoring girls from ages six to 17. Family members said the woman known in the troop as “Miss Annette” lives and breathes Girl Scouts.

“I do it for the girls,” Perez, 56, said. “They’re my family.”

She took on the role when her daughter Ronni, now 23, was just 5 and wanted to join a Girl Scout troop, but there wasn’t one in the neighborhood. So Perez stepped up and started a troop to give her daughter the experience she didn’t have as a young girl.

Over the years, Perez and her troop have gone on campouts, caroled at nursing homes, and volunteered at H-E-B Christmas dinners and the Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner.

They’ve traveled to Disney World, a trip funded through cookie sales. They’ve gone to the beaches of Corpus Christi, where some of the girls felt sand on their bare feet for the first time. And they’ve collected clothes for victims of home fires.

When her son, Joshua, 20, was little he was always with her at meetings. Parents would tell her the boy should have been a recruiter because of his knowledge of Girl Scouts protocol. Now, in the Army, serving in Korea, he sets his alarm at 3 a.m., 15 hours ahead of San Antonio time to call his mother and family members.

Over the years, Miss Annette’s volunteerism has gone beyond her girls and the Girl Scouts. She has taught a variety of classes to parents and mentored new leaders. She’s served on a PTA executive board for several years and worked with the Warren High School band for four years. In 2015, Northside ISD chose her as Partner of the Year.

But her focus is on the Girl Scouts in her care.

The coronavirus pandemic has limited the number of girls to 10 at each of three meetings held an hour apart every other week.

Currently, the troop is helping to renovate the Creekside Community Center; Perez is the Creekside Homeowner Association’s vice president. The troop meets at the center because they can’t gather at homes due to coronavirus restrictions.

At the center, they’re cleaning and painting an empty room to convert into their meeting place starting May 2021. For several Girl Scout cadettes in the troop, the project will help them earn the Silver Award, which recognizes a scout’s initiative to improve her neighborhood.

For all the members of the troop, it’s their way of giving back to the center staff for letting them use the facility.

Perez’s parents, Minnie and Liborio Zamora. passed on the importance of service as she grew up in Pleasanton and on San Antonio’s South Side with her three sisters and brother. At times it was hard making ends meet, but she learned that it didn’t take money to lend someone a helping hand.

A graduate of McCollum High School, she stayed active through days of sickness caused by an autoimmune disease.

Perez was in her 20s when she learned she was born without a spleen, a condition that leads to serious infections. She often has to be hospitalized. Her last hospital stay was six days in August, when hospitals weren’t allowing visitors in patient’s rooms.

But sick days do not deter her. Perez recalled times she’s been released from the hospital and has gone straight to a troop meeting.

The girls keep her going. They have posted on Facebook how proud they are of her. It’s not unusual for Perez to find gifts and flowers at her door, left there by her Girl Scouts.

And she still gives back to those who instilled that sense of service in her. Twice a week she returns to the home where she grew up and cares for her parents.

Perez recalled how she was overcome with emotion at her daughter’s bridging ceremony, held in honor of her transition from a Girl Scout ambassador to a Girl Scout adult. Then it hit her, like a flash, that 12 years had zipped by.

When Perez spoke of possibly stepping down as the troop’s leader, the girls and parents were dismayed. They vetoed her decision and convinced her to stay.

She’s proud of the girls, now older, who learned the importance of continuing their education and community work. They carry on lessons learned at meetings, where they recited the pledge of allegiance and the Girl Scouts Promise.

Through the sessions, the girls learned — and still learn today — leadership, purpose and entrepreneurial skills. And at the end of meetings, they cluster around Perez and sing about friendship and the strong ties that bind them.

“It’s about teaching them that they’re not just girls,” Perez said, “they are all sisters.”

Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Vincent, become a subscriber. vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavis