Girl Scouts in the region will be putting their entrepreneurial and leadership skills into practice with the arrival of the Girl Scout Cookie Program. Order-taking begins[more] Thursday, Jan. 8 and will last through Sunday, Jan. 23.
Cookies remain $3.50 per box with proceeds benefitting local troops. This year there are eight varieties to choose from: Do-si-Dos, Dulce de Leche, Lemon Chalet Cremes, Samaos, Tagalongs, Thank You Berry Munch, Thin Mints and Trefoils. All cookies contain zero grams of trans fat.
The program allows girls to gain important financial literacy and leadership skills. Girls learn to set goals, work as a team, manage money and market a product. According to Council CEO Denise Stewart, this program is proven. “We have many former Girl Scouts tell us they owe many of their business skills to the cookie program. It does your heart good to hear that.”
Historically, the sale has been an important activity council for a while as the cookie program is almost as old as the organization it benefits. The sale of cookies as a way to finance troop activities began with an Oklahoma troop baking cookies in their kitchens and selling them at school in 1917, five years after Juliette Gordon Low founded Girl Scouts. “Although the cookies have changed since their beginning, the concept of the sale has not,” said Stewart. “It’s all about building leaders.”
For individuals that do not wish to purchase cookies but want to support Girl Scouts there is the Gift of Caring program. Through this program, consumers can buy cookies and leave them with the troop. Troops across the council will then deliver the cookies to local children’s shelters to benefit kids in need.
For more information on purchasing cookies contact the local Girl Scout office at (800)-632-6894 or visit www.girlscoutsdiamonds.org.
Girl Scouts – Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas serves close to 18,000 members and encompasses all counties in Arkansas except Crittenden, includes Adair, LeFlore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma as well as Bowie and Cass counties in Texas. Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.
