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“Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?”
Yes, it’s that time of year, and with Super Bowl Sunday right around the corner, the area’s Girl Scouts will be out in force selling their infamous cookies, asking that ever pertinent question.
This past Saturday was Cookie Delivery Day, said Media and Engagement Manager Catherine Schofield, who is also a staff member of the Girl Scouts of Colorado council. Semis full of pallets of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit’s cookies were sent to pick-up locations across the state.
Selling Girl Scout cookies is no joke: Last year — across the state alone — Girl Scouts sold just over 3.6 million packages of cookies, Schofield said. Thin Mints and Samoas were the top picks.
When someone buys box of cookies, she said, a good portion of that is going to the girls you are buying from. A portion goes to the bakers. Another portion goes to running the Girl Scouts of Colorado council.
“That money (to the council) goes back into programming for the girls, events for the girls, support staff, and Girl Scouts USA,” she said. “It all goes back to supporting the girls in numerous and different ways.”
The way the Girl Scout cookie program works, Schofield said, is each girl sets their own number of boxes she wants to sell between early February and mid-March, when the annual event runs.
“I’ve met girls this week whose goals were 3,000 boxes; there are girls whose goals are 30 boxes,” she said. “They set their own goals to achieve and then the money that they earn from selling cookies can go to what they want.”
Trips, service projects, and giving back to the community are some of how the girls can spend their money, she explained.
“It’s very individualized,” she said. “The Girl Scout cookie program is so much more than selling sweet treats. Our girls are running their own small business.
“They’re learning entrepreneurship, they’re learning money management, and they’re learning people skills. They’re getting out there, setting their own goals, and they’re figuring out their own ways to achieve them.”
While the sales in the valley begin on Wednesday afternoon for one day only at the Aspen Community School in Woody Creek, they’ll kick off in force at Aspen’s and Carbondale’s respective City Markets on Friday and El Jebel’s City Market on Saturday. Assorted times and other locations through this month can be found in Booth Details at girlscouts.org/en/cookies/how-to-buy-cookies/cookie-finder-results.html?#81611.
The lore around Girl Scout cookies is that, a few years after founding the organization in 1912 in Georgia, Juliette Gordon Low needed a fundraiser.
“What better way to fund this new, growing organization than through a bake sale, right?” said Schofield.
Jonathan Bowers is the news editor for The Aspen Times. He can be reached at jbowers@aspentimes.com.…Read more by Jonathan Bowers