Girl Scouts add photo keepsakes to "Sweets & Treats" program
Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois kicks off its 2014 "Sweets & Treats" program from Oct. 10-24. Each year, girls start their own small businesses through "Sweets & Treats," offering gourmet food items and magazine subscriptions to community members.
New this year, girls will also have the opportunity to market and sell photo calendars, books, and cards for individual customer personalization!
Also new this year is the online Nut Store where customers can order, pay, and receive direct shipments of nuts and candy with girls receiving full credit for the purchase. Customers are not restricted to the 12 items on a girl's order card but can choose from over 15 additional items, including corporate gifts. Interested customers can ask a Girl Scout for an order form or an evite to her Online Nut Store.
To be connected to a local Girl Scout, customers can call GSNI's Product Program hotline at (800) 242-5591, ext. 7250, or email orders to info@girlscoutsni.org where it will be filled and delivered by a local Girl Scout!
Girls are again proudly supporting Gift of Caring Project Share though "Sweets & Treats." If customers don't want to purchase "Sweets & Treats" items as gifts or for themselves, they can donate to the military in $5 increments.
A $5 donation purchases one nut or candy item and four $5 donations purchases one subscription to a magazine for a military service member. All candy, nuts, and subscriptions are ordered virtually by girls and donated directly to the military. Girls who receive two $5 donations toward the Gift of Caring Project Share earn a colorful Share Patch for their commitment to our military.
While "Sweets & Treats" is not as well known as the Girl Scout Cookie Program, it is just as important to girls! Both programs teach girls important skills and help them earn money for their troop. Proceeds from "Sweets & Treats" help troops fund activities and service projects that begin long before the Girl Scout Cookie Program. Plus, Girl Scout product programs differ from traditional fundraisers by encouraging girls to work together to decide how to spend troop funds rather than dictating how the proceeds will be used.
Girls learn five valuable life skills through participation in "Sweets & Treats." They set personal goals for themselves and a troop goal to achieve what they want to do as a group. They use decision-making skills to provide input on how to maximize sales and spend troop proceeds. They hone people skills by learning how to talk to, listen to, and interact with different types of people while gaining an understanding of the importance of customer service. By managing money, girls get a better sense of counting change properly and ensuring a check is completed correctly. Lastly, they learn about business ethics. Girls gain an understanding of how important it is to be honest, meet deadlines, and properly market a product.
Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois serves over 15,000 girls and nearly 5,000 adult volunteers in parts or all of Boone, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago counties.