DaytonDailyNews.com

On the same day a former Girl Scout leader from Union was charged with stealing $18,000 in cookie money, an ex-Piqua cheerleading adviser was sentenced to three years of community control for stealing money from two cheer groups.

The two cases that made headlines Tuesday, July 22, are just the latest in a string of alleged wrongdoing involving community group volunteers.

In March, Angela D. Guernsey, 34, of Fairborn, pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft for stealing $29,391.38 from the Beavercreek Popcorn Festival while serving as its treasurer.

Guernsey was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of community control and ordered to pay full restitution after she wrote checks to herself and for personal expenses from April 2005 to June 2007.

When someone steals from within an organization and betrays that trust, "it's sort of devastating to the entire group," Popcorn Festival publicity chairwoman Nancy Hadley said.

"There's 20 of us and we were all taken aback," she said of the independent committee of volunteers. "But what it did for us, it put in some stringent rules."

The committee updated its bylaws, bonded the treasurer position and now require two people to sign all checks. And, at any time, anybody on the committee can request to review at the books.

"We just had to safeguard," she said, noting that they now run things more like a business.

"If you get burned one time, that's enough," she said. "You don't want it repeated or come even close."

The Girl Scouts of Western Ohio filed charges against former Girl Scout leader Tamara Jo Ward, 44, of Union, after "some of the parents in the troop contacted us," Girl Scouts spokeswoman Joy Brock said.

Brock said all adults who work with girls are carefully screened, including reference and criminal background checks.

The organization also has some checks and balances in place for troops, including that all bank accounts must include two signers, she said. One volunteer receives the checkbook, while another volunteer gets the bank statements.

Brock stressed that because of their financial guidelines and the integrity of its volunteers, less than 1 percent of cookie money goes unrecovered.

"That's pretty good when you consider how much money going through different hands," she said.