Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout and Faith Iames Schremp of Wausau, Wisconsin proves this.

A model scout during her younger years, Schremp, now 86, finally received her Golden Eaglet Award on Saturday, 69 year after she was supposed to obtain it.

She failed to attend the Girl Scout Camp in 1938 because she woke up with the mumps. The camp is final test to clinch the award.

The Golden Eaglet was the highest achievement in Girl Scouting before the Gold Award, which the current generation of girl scouts gets.

Schremp, who joined the Girl Scout in the 1920s, admitted she was shattered by her absence from the important ceremony.

But it was better late than never. Girl Scout of the Fox River Area chief executive Fran Raley pinned the Golden Eaglet Award at the Girl Scouts' 2007 Holiday Folk Fair.

Raley and daughter-in-law Dee Schremp worked together to track down an eaglet pin, which production has since been discontinued.

When the effort proved futile, an old pin at the scouting office was repaired and then awarded to Schremp.

Schremp now has four children and 26 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who all attended Saturday's ceremony. Eighteen members of her family have been or are members of Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts.