Young divas learn the ropes selling Girl Scout Cookies
Written by Phil Cerroni
By Alice Canham
To be a Diva – an honest-to Do-Si-Do Diva – is awesome. Just ask Daisy Scout Liberty Kelly, age six, who earned that status last year by selling over 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.
“You would get to stay in a hotel with a swimming pool and lots of stuff to do,” Liberty said. “I got to take my parents to Great Wolf Lodge. We got to do whatever we wanted and to eat dinner there. We got dessert in our room!”
For Karizma Ritchie, age seven, it’s all about The Limo. She intends to sell enough cookies this year to meet the boys in the pop group One Direction at a specially-arranged party.
Fellow Daisy Gracie Martin, also seven, wears her pride on her badge.
“This badge is for selling over 800 boxes last year,” Gracie explained. “I also got a badge for riding a horse. And for making friends.”
Most Daisy Scouts have some incentive in mind when they are making a sale. As they get older they can choose to switch to a cash option.
“But at this age, they’re still happy to get the stuffed puppies and so forth,” Amanda Kelly added. She is Liberty’s mother and for the last two years, she’s been the Troop Leader for Girl Scout Troop 4647.
“We met two years ago about starting a troop, and they needed some more leaders,” Amanda Kelly explained. With a background in Scouting that took her from Brownie through Cadet, Amanda agreed to step up.
“These girls with me today are all Daisies,” she continued. “We also have two younger girls in our troop, and a couple that are Brownies this year.
“Last year we did very well in cookie sales. We had girls range from 125 boxes to over 1,000 each. Our troop sold an average of about 680 boxes per girl.”
Scouts still go door to door, and their parents help out by selling to coworkers. Each troop will also arrange to sell their wares at stores such as Kroger, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Tom Thumb, Walgreen’s and Cici’s Pizza.
“We did about 17 or 18 booth sales last year,” Amanda said. “The girls really worked hard.”
So how do customers find the cookies they need? There’s an app for that. You can load ‘Cookie Finder’ to your smart phone to learn where the girls will be conducting sales.
And that’s not the only 21st Century twist for this organization that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Cookie Club websites allow girls in the Northeast Texas area to organize their goals, their sales and their outreach, such as an email blast to enlist the support of friends and family.
But what’s the real secret to selling cookies? Just ask the Diva:
“Be cute and stuff,” Liberty said. “And always say thank you.”
Learn more at www.gsnetx.org .
