Photo by Bill Green
The Frederick County Girl Scout Association held a cookie rally on Jan. 7 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Frederick to learn marketing strategies. Kenzie Sichelstiel demonstrates how to attract customers when selling at a outside location.
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How the cookies (proceeds) crumble:
69 cents — Troop proceeds (average based on various opportunities)
$2.04 — Direct services to girls and adults:
Full camping sites and services
Councilwide programs
Broad menu of training opportunities for adult volunteers
Technological and Web support
Staff support for associations, service units and troops through seven offices
Financial assistance for girls and adults for outreach efforts to further the Girl Scouting mission
$1.04 — Cost of product, promotion and incentives as well as debt and transportation
23 cents — Administrative costs
Of GSCNC’s total budget: 85 percent funds direct services to girls and adults, 15 percent covers administrative costs inherent to management and fundraising. And more than $3 million in proceeds were awarded to GSCNC troops in 2011.
Cookie varieties include Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Do-si-dos, Trefoils, Savannah Smiles, Dulce de Leche and Thank U Berry Munch.
For more information on Girl Scout cookies, go to www.gscnc.org/cookies. To find a cookie booth near you, go to http://cookielocator.littlebrownie.com.
Last year, Frederick County’s Girl Scouts sold 251,136 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. This year’s goal is to sell about 7,500 more boxes, or 258,670.
Ordering ends Friday, but cookie booth sales begin Feb. 24 and end March 25.
To get the girls geared up for cookie sales, the Frederick County Girl Scout Association of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital had a cookie rally Jan. 7 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Frederick. “We had kindergartners through high schoolers,” said organizer Lynn Wood.
The girls learned marketing strategies to sell the cookies, which are $4 a box. There are four nut-free varieties. For those who still cannot buy cookies, for other allergy or diabetic reasons, people can donate a box through the Girl Scouts’ Gift of Caring Project. Each troop chooses a group, often a fire hall or a local shelter, to receive the donated cookies.
Wood said the girls in her Senior troop, ninth- and 10th-graders in the north part of Frederick, do not sell cookies door to door. Orders are taken from friends and family and booth sales are emphasized.
“The little girls are more excited about going to their neighbors’ houses and showing the cookie form,” she said. Last year, Daisy Girl Scouts, who are kindergarten age, could sell cookies for the first time.
Whether the girls are selling door to door, through booths or both, the cookie sales emphasize five skills: decision-making, goal-setting, money management, people skills and business ethics.
The cookie rally started as a pep rally for girls in the Mountainview service unit, which includes the elementary schools of Yellow Springs, Whittier, Waverley, Monocacy, North Frederick and St. John’s, Wood said. This year’s rally was open to all county Girl Scouts.
Fifty-four teens helped plan the rally, which featured eight stations designed to teach the girls everything they needed to know to sell the cookies. “It’s about knowing your actual product,” Wood said. The more the girls can sound professional and knowledgeable to potential customers, the more successful they are likely to be, she said.
Girl Scout troops average 69 cents on each box of cookies sold. The rest of the money earned goes to pay for incentives, council services for girls and adults, cost of the cookies and administrative costs. Eighty five percent of the money goes to direct services, while 15 percent covers administrative costs.
Wood said her girls use the cookie proceeds to fund an end-of-year gathering. Some troops pay for trips to Hershey Park or Adventure Park. Still other troops venture out farther, many to founder Juliette Low’s birthplace in Savannah, Ga.
