The season for Girl Scouts to start selling their beloved cookies is here.
Scouts are accepting presale orders until Feb. 17. Regular sales will start March 22 and continue until April 14. This year’s stock includes their classic cookies: Girl Scout S’mores, Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Trefoils (Shortbread), Do-si-dos (Peanut Butter sandwich), Lemonades, Savannah Smiles, Thanks-A-Lot, Toffee-tastic and Caramel Chocolate Chip, the last two being their gluten free options.
Most varieties of cookies will be on sale for $4, except for the Girl Scout S’mores and Toffee-tastic cookies, which will instead be on sale for $5. The Girl Scout S’mores cookies are made with all natural ingredients, as are the gluten-free Toffee-tastic cookies. This will be the last year that Savannah Smiles will be on sale.
“They started selling cookies over a hundred years ago now,” said Andrea Winfrey, Southeast Wyoming’s Girl Scout staff head.
Cookie proceeds help fund the troops, including their uniforms and paying for their next year’s membership. In past few years, Winfrey said, the scouts have also saved the money to go on trips to places like Mount Rushmore. One group saved enough to go to London and Paris.
While Girl Scouts do earn incentives for selling cookies, for example 1,000 boxes sold will earn them a free camp, the most important takeaway for these girls is the skills they learn, Winfrey said. The girls learn entrepreneurship skills, management skills and people skills. They also learn the importance of decision-making and goal setting.
They start the season of cookie selling by creating a game plan and set goals for what they want to achieve by the end of the season. First, they start out selling on their own for presales and then move on to selling as a team in booths outside of stores.
“It’s really fun to watch our first-year Kindergarten Daisies,” said Winfrey.
Girl Scouts are able to start selling cookies at any age as a scout. Winfrey said the Kindergarten Daisies don’t always have the necessary skills to sell cookies, such as counting money, but by the end of the season they are able to do it on their own.
Those who haven’t seen a Girl Scout walking around to take orders can download their cookie app, Cookie Finder, and enter their ZIP code to find where the Girl Scouts will be selling in booths. Interested buyers can also visit GirlScouts.org to find out where cookies are being sold. Cookies will be delivered to doors mid-March to early April.
The Girl Scouts began in 1912, organized by 51-year old Juliette Gordon Low. Low’s vision was to share the outdoor world and education programs she had learned to young girls to inspire them to express their intelligence, strength and individuality during the Progressive Era.
