Girl Scouts rally for 2017 cookie sales
- Girls Scouts and their leaders in Madison attended a successful kickoff rally for 2017 sales of Girl Scout Cookies. CONTRIBUTED
MADISON – In early January, about 200 Girls Scouts from across Madison gathered to rally around the kick-off of Girls Scout Cookie sales.
“This event happens annually in the form of a pep rally to get the girls excited and trained to sell cookies this year,” Beth Crocker said. Crocker serves as a leader of a Daisy/Brownie flex troop and as organizer of the Cookie rally.
“Our rally was for Service Unit 212, which includes all troops in the City of Madison. We are the largest unit north of Birmingham,” Crocker said. Columbia Elementary School hosted the event.
“We concentrate on goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics” in preparing the Scouts to sell cookies, Crocker said.
2017 marks the 100th year of sales of Girl Scout cookies. Officials have created a new cookie, the S’mores, to celebrate this milestone.
“The Girl Scouts are credited with inventing the yummy camp treat with the name coming from girls asking for ‘some more,'” she said. The S’more features a crispy graham wafer that is double-dipped in creme icing and topped with chocolate.
Other available cookies are Thin Mints, Caramel deLites Samoas, Peanut Butter Patties / Tagalogs, Shortbread Trefoils, Do-si-dos Peanut Butter Sandwich, Lemonades, Savannah Smiles, Toffee-tastic, Thanks-a-Lot and Trios.
Cookie booths will open all over Madison starting Feb 10. The cookie sale “is our largest fundraiser,” Crocker said. “The funds we earn help sustain our Scout troops, our service unit and council. We are also very proud of the option to donate cookies to our service men and women.”
The Girl Scout unit in Madison has decided to donate boxes of cookies to local veterans, including Floyd E. Tut Fann Veterans Administration Home in Huntsville.
“Be on the lookout for troops out in your neighborhood the first weekend of February,” Crocker said. “They will be pulling wagons full of cookies during our ‘cookies-on-the go’ event. If your doorbell rings, please answer.”
According to organization records, Girl Scouts held the first known cookie sale in 1917. The S’mores recipe was first published in 1925.
During World War II, Scouts sold calendars instead of cookies because of wartime rationing and shortages. In 2014, the organization added online
monitoring of sales with Digital Cookie.
For more information, visit girlscouts.org.
