Turning 91 years old this past July, Donna Hooper, of Calhoun, Ga. is the oldest Pathfinder attending the International Pathfinder Camporee in Oshkosh, Wis.

“If you love children then you should see if you can’t get some time and just be an example so the Pathfinders will want to know Jesus,” says Hooper who just completed her Pathfinder honor number 91, Indian Lore, and is working on honor number 92. “I try to get an honor for each year I am old.”

For the past 75 years Hooper has participated in one form or another of being a Pathfinder including teacher, director and counselor. She earned her master guide (then called a master comrade) at the age of 16.

“I have attended every one of the International Camporees from Camp Hale in Colorado to Pennsylvania to here at Oshkosh,” says Hooper who wears a vest with patches on the front from all of the international camporees and patches on the back from Southern Union and Georgia-Cumberland Conference camporees.

Hooper still teaches Pathfinder honors including nature, crafts and manners. “She teaches an occasional honor and likes to encourage the kids involved with pin trading,” says Carol Martinez, director of the Cherokee Pathfinder Club in Calhoun, Ga. "Mrs. Hooper told me she has 26 pounds of pins in her trading collection. Last year we gave her a 35-year honor pin at investiture.”

“Over the years she has ordered honors for the Calhoun Club,” says John Swafford, Children/Junior Youth Ministries director for the Georgia-Cumberland Conference. “She has a happy personality and likes working with people in a dynamic way.”

Hooper traveled to Oshkosh with the Cherokee Pathfinder Club from Calhoun, Ga., and is staying with her niece, Becky Abel Larson, the Pathfinder director of the Camino Club in California.

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