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by Holly Matthews [email protected] �Resistance is futile. You love them, you know it.� That is one way Leah Carter, Titusville Girl Scout Neighborhood director, is promoting the current Girl Scout cookie sales. Each January, the members of Keystone Tall Tree Girl Scout Council join scouts around the nation in taking orders for the famous Girl Scout cookies. Locally, scouts sold 13,000 boxes of the cookies last year. �We hope to exceed that this year,� Carter said. On Monday, scouts and their leaders in the Titusville Neighborhood gathered for their annual Frosty Frolic at Burgess Park and along with games, crafts and outdoor winter activities took a moment to discuss this year�s cookie sales. Sue Thayer, leader of Junior Troop 343, explained that the annual cookie time serves as much more than a sales promotion. �It is an educational experience for the girls. They learn how to present themselves in public and how to manage money,� she said. The program allows the girls to use their knowledge of finance, marketing and communications as they take an active part in helping to support the Girl Scout movement. The cookie sales are considered a money-earning program for special projects, supplies, equipment and facilities. Some money raised goes to the council to pay for programming offered the girls and other funds raised stay local. The troops actually get a certain amount for their discretionary funding, explained Gretchen Ciccarelli of the Keystone Tall Tree Girl Scout Council based in Kittanning, in a telephone interview. Carter further explained that the troops get to keep a certain percentage of each box sold. �We try to reserve a part for the girls to use on a year-end outing,� Carter said. �The girls talk about choices and decide what they want to do. It can be a reality check when they learn how much certain activities cost.� Carter said the scouts also will do booth sales at downtown locations after individual orders are filled. �We order extra boxes for people who did not have a chance to order or who want more.� Carter said a booth sale also is held at University of Pittsburgh at Titusville. �It gives the students there a touch of home. We enjoy partnering with UPT on a variety of things.� Anyone who would like to order cookies but does not know a Girl Scout can contact Bernadette Barnes, cookie chairman, and she will pass that order on to a troop, Carter said. �Bernadette is known as our cookie diva,� Carter said with a smile. A Girl Scout cookie display has been created in the window of the former Bryan�s on the Corner, Carter said. Ciccarelli said Girl Scouts have been selling cookies since the 1920s when the founder, Juliette Gordon Low, began the program as a way for Girl Scouts to become self-reliant. In the beginning, the girls actually baked their own cookies. Today, Ciccarelli said, the cookie sales keep two bakeries busy. One of the cookie bakers, Little Brownie Bakers of Louisville, Ky., baked more than 133 million packages of Girl Scout cookies last year, she said. Ciccarelli said there are 315 Girl Scout councils in the United States and 12 councils in Pennsylvania. Volunteer boards set cookie prices each year. Cookies sold in the Keystone Tall Tree Council again cost $3.50 a box. �Seven years ago was the last time we had an increase in prices,� Ciccarelli said. She said the prices are determined by the needs of the girls in a particular council. The favorite cookies in the local council? Ciccarelli said that the traditional favorites are Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs. Last year Thin Mints were the council�s biggest sellers, she said, with 155,052 boxes sold. Samoas were second with 131,676 boxes sold. �Even though Girl Scout cookies are sold only once each year, they actually outsell Oreos,� Ciccarelli said. She noted that this year�s cookie line-up includes two cookies introduced last year, Double Dutch Chocolate Chip and the reduced fat Lemon Coolers. Do-Si-Dos and Trefoils round out the Girl Scout cookie line-up. Ciccarelli said there were 7,442 girls in the council in 2004 as well as 2,540 adult members, troop leaders and volunteers. Of these, she said, the Daisies � the youngest members � do not sell cookies. The council includes a 12-county area. Ciccarelli said that Girl Scouts will continue with their community service project, Gift of Caring. Girl Scouts hope their customers will purchase at least one additional package of Girl Scout Cookies to share with someone who is unable to purchase them. Gift of Caring packages will be delivered by the scouts to senior citizen centers, women and children�s shelters, food banks or other charity organizations. Carter said each year the local girls decide to whom the Gift of Caring packages will go. She said one scout suggested that this year some cookies be sent to victims of the tsunami, but the scouts learned that monetary contributions are the priority in those areas right now. �It was a very nice thought though,� Carter said. At the end of 2004, Ciccarelli said, there were 202 girls registered as scouts in the Titusville Neighborhood along with 42 adults involved in the program. Rhonda McClintock, leader of Troops 309 and 371 in Cherrytree, said the cookie sales are a major undertaking each year for the scouts. Last year, she noted, her troops sold over 1,000 boxes. Thayer explained that the cookies are delivered about one month after the close of orders. The closing date this year is Jan. 28. She said Honeywell has donated the use of one of its loading areas. The correct amount of cookies are divided among the individual leaders at the loading dock. The leaders then distribute the cookies to their scouts who in turn deliver them to their customers. Today, the Girl Scouting programming focuses on career interests such as math, science and technology and on a broad range of topics that provide guidance to girls in their daily lives. The programming deals with contemporary issues that girls face more and more, including dealing with peer pressure, handling family crises and preventing teen pregnancy, among others. The girls are also involved in community service work as well as the traditional activities such as camping and outdoor activities. Thayer said the next big event for the local scouts will be the annual father and daughter dance held in February at Titusville Middle School. �It is always a big hit,� she said. Add a comment |
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