Girl Scouts kick off cookie sales on 100th year
A new flavor of cookie commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of America was the star of the group’s third-annual cookie kick off Saturday at Rosemont’s Allstate Arena.
Dubbed “Savannah Smiles,” honoring the Georgia birthplace of Girl Scouts’ founder Juliette Gordon Low, the lemon wedge treats will be among thousands of boxes of cookies sold through March in the Chicago and suburban region and worldwide.
Nearly 7,500 Girl Scouts and their families participated in Saturday’s daylong conference, which included a Family Fun Fest and pep rally with entertainment followed by a Chicago Wolves hockey game.
The Girl Scouts’ cookie program is all about teaching girls life skills such as financial literacy, goal-setting, decision-making, money management, business ethics and people skills, officials said.
“We chose to begin this tradition about three years ago (because) it brought together a dispersed geography and exposes (scouts) to opportunities that they may not be aware of,” said Maria Wynne of Palatine, who heads the Girl Scouts’ Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Council.
The council, which represents 85,000 scouts in 245 communities, conducts programs to help girls make educated decisions about career choices available in today’s market.
“One of the things that we’re very consciously focused on is the job outlook for 2018 through 2040,” Wynne said. “We put together really compelling programs that allow a girl to be involved in science, technology, engineering and math.”
Wynne said girls typically start losing interest in science and math subjects between third and fifth grade. But with women making up 51 percent of the workforce she said it’s even more important to invest in girls’ education in those subjects at an early age.
“This is the pipeline” for future employers,” Wynne said.
Selling cookies is the girls’ first foray into entrepreneurship and many Girl Scout alums start up businesses of their own later on in life, Wynne said.
“The skills that we expose a girl to here are skills that she will take for life and help her to shape the person that she’ll be tomorrow,” she said.
Wynne said while the organization has evolved over the last 100 years, its goal always has been to empower girls and teach them life and survival skills. “What we see consistently is an increase in self-reliance, character, confidence,” she added.
Perhaps the biggest change has come with a new generation of girls like cadet Nicki King, 13, of Hoffman Estates, who is using social media to sell cookies instead of knocking on doors.
“Because I’m on Facebook, I was going to post a status message and email my family,” said the eighth-grader from Eisenhower Junior High in Hoffman Estates.
King said last year she sold roughly 50 boxes of cookies through Facebook.
Individual scouts will take cookie preorders through Jan. 29, and start booth sales in February. Sales run through March and help fund troops and the council’s programs.
“We want all the troops and girls to set their own goals,” said Mavis Laing, chief operating officer.
Events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts on March 12 will be held throughout the region in cooperation with the American Library Association. For details, visit girlscoutsgcnwi.org.