WATERLOO -- Imagine a barbershop singing group. What do you picture?

Do you think of four mustachioed men in straw hats and red-striped shirts, belting out four-part harmony on a street corner?

Or do you think of a group of hundreds of women singing in four-part harmony on a stage in front of thousands?

If you thought of the latter, it's likely you're familiar with the Sweet Adelines organization -- or know Phyllis Harreld. The Waterloo native and daughter of Johnson's Bakery owner Herb Johnson who now lives in Yucaipa, Calif., and has been singing barbershop for 35 years.

This fall, during an international Sweet Adelines competition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, all that practice finally paid off. Harreld's Anaheim, Calif.-based group won first-place honors and walked away with gold medals.

She brought those back to Waterloo with her when she returned last week, excited to share her accomplishment with friends and family.

"I've always wanted to win the international competition, but never figured I would," said Harreld, 66.

Harreld and her husband moved to California when she was 20, in search of work. With her husband working and barely knowing anyone, Harreld soon found herself looking for a meaningful hobby.

She met someone around that time who told her she sang "really high," but Harreld said she didn't want to be a soloist. Then the person told her about the Sweet Adelines organization and the Anaheim group, which was a 75-mile drive from her home.

Harreld, who liked to sing, agreed to go.

"When I walked in, I just felt like there was a place for me -- that what I did was what they wanted," she said. "It was a wonderful feeling, and I've been doing it ever since."

Harreld is part of the 130-member Harborlites, a group of women from all over the country -- literally. One woman used to fly in from Florida each week. They range in age from 15 to 80.

"When we're all together, we're all the same age," Harreld said.

The women (there's also a separate men's barbershop organization) sing in four parts: bass, baritone, lead and tenor. Tenor is the high part, which Harreld took on for most of her time in Harborlites. In the past five years, however, she's moved down to the lower lead part, so named because it's always on the melody.

"I couldn't sing the high notes anymore," she said.

It was with the lead part that Harreld went with the Harborlites to regional competition in April 2006 in Phoenix — the group also won the regional in 2004 — where the group took first place and advanced to the international competition in October in Calgary.

"It's the fall of the next year, because you have to have time to get ready," she said.

The Harborlites used all that time preparing. Rehearsals were once per week for three hours with few breaks. Members designed costumes, learned choreography and even sang into tape recorders to listen for proper harmonization.

All that hard work paid off when the Harborlites made it to the finals, singing "Tonight" from West Side Story as well as "My Honey's Lovin' Arms," "A Bundle of Old Love Letters" and songs from "Phantom of the Opera." They scored 2,985 points out of a possible 3,280, or roughly 91 percent, to take first place in the world.

"On stage, it's just really exciting," Harreld said.

Sweet Adelines International is "a worldwide organization of women singers committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony through education and performance," according to its Web site, www.sweetadelineintl.org. It includes more than 1,200 quartets and 600 choruses in countries around the world.

Harreld hopes it won't be her last international win, and expects to keep singing for several years.

"One lady is 80," she said. "Man, if she can do it, so can I."

But the Harborlites, she added, is about much more than the thrill of competition.

"It's camaraderie," Harreld said. "I love it."

Contact Amie Steffen at (319) 291-1464 or amie.steffen@wcfcourier.com.

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You don't have to fly out to Anaheim to join up with a Sweet Adelines chorus -- there's one right in the Cedar Valley. The Cedar Harmony Chorus, affiliated with Sweet Adelines, rehearses Mondays at 7 p.m. at Valley Lutheran School on Greenhill Road in Cedar Falls. Women over age 12 may attend, and visitors are welcome. For more information, contact Marilynn Buxton at (319) 352-5899.