Local Girl Scout Troop Prepping for Cookie Sales

By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]

Draper - A local Draper Girl Scout troop is gearing up for this year’s cookie sales. Troop 2006 will be setting up booths at various retail stores, as well as selling door to door in their neighborhoods. 

Troop 2006 was established, coincidentally, in 2006 and consists of six girls who have been in the troop since its inception. Kelly L., a member of the troop, explained the purpose of the Girl Scouts.

“It’s a program to get girls out of their comfort zone to be women of courage, confidence and character,” Kelly said. 

The Girl Scouts are perhaps best known for their cookie sales, their biggest fundraiser of the year. It’s also part of the Girl Scout program, teaching the girls goal setting, decision making, money management, business ethics and people skills they can later use when they are adults. 

Sales from the cookies help send the girls to summer camps. One camp is TreFoil Ranch, a horse ranch located up Provo Canyon where girls can participate in horseback riding instruction, high and low ropes courses, archery, biking, hiking and other camp activities. 

There is also Camp Cloud Rim, located near Park City. Depending on the camp session, campers may participate in canoeing, sailing, kayaking, swimming, photography, pottery, rock climbing, hiking and backpacking.

If the troop sells enough cookies, they can also achieve their destination goals where they can travel all over the world. In 2013, Troop 2006 went to California and visited SeaWorld to learn more about marine biology. 

Before the start of each cookie selling season, the troop gets together to discuss their selling goals. Each girl sets a personal goal to sell around 300 to 400 boxes on average. Kelly has higher aspirations. 

“My goal is to sell 600 boxes,” Kelly said. “If I do that, I’ll be able to raise enough to work on my gold award. (The highest award a senior Girl Scout can achieve.)”

Cookie selling season runs March 11 through March 24. People interested in purchasing cookies can go to the Cookie Finder app. Users can enter their ZIP code and find booths closest to them. 

There are eight different cookie options to choose from. There are the traditional cookies, including lemon Savannah Smiles, shortbread Trefoils, peanut butter patty Tagalongs, peanut butter sandwhich Do-Si-Dos, caramel and coconut Samoas and, the most popular cookie, Thin Mints, which are now vegan.

There are also two new cookie choices this year. There are Rah-Rah Raisins, an oatmeal raisin cookie topped with Greek yogurt chips. There is also the Toffee-tastics, a buttery cookie with bits of toffee. The Toffee-tastics are gluten free, but it can only be purchased at booths. Each box is $4, which may sound expensive but, according to Kelly, is cheaper than other states like California, which go for $5 a box. 

Kelly joined the Girl Scouts because her two older sisters were also Girl Scouts. She described watching them led her to always wanting to be a Girl Scout.

“I wanted to try new things and do all the things they were able to do,” Kelly said. 

Kelly said she loves being in the Girl Scouts because of the opportunities given to her. 

“I get to go to places I’d never get to go, learn so much more than I would in another program,” Kelly said. “It opens doors and gives so many more opportunities that I wouldn’t be able to get if I wasn’t in the Girl Scouts.”

For more information, including how to join, visit http://www.gsutah.org/.