Once a year Girl Scouts are invited to attend a special event to learn about selling cookies along with crafts, safety lessons, and an opportunity to earn a patch. But the primary benefit to attending? Being able to taste every Girl Scout Cookie.
It’s Cookie Rally time, which for Girl Scouts is an opportunity to learn everything they can about the cookies and safe selling practices. It also means that the time to buy these annual cookies is just around the corner.
“People will ask the girls ‘what’s your favorite,’ and it gives them a pitch, something that they can talk about,” said Debbie Forbeck, Girl Scouts Service Unit Manager for Zionsville. “This is a fairly young unit right now, and a lot of them might not have tried all the cookies before. If they try them they can talk about them.”
Forbeck estimated that as many as 150 Girl Scouts have attended the rally in years past. She is hopeful that with so many younger Scouts the turnout will be high.
The evening is also about meeting new girls of different ages and getting exposure to troops at the other schools.
“It’s always nice to get the service unit together,” she added, since the large Zionsville unit does not generally have opportunities to meet.
Cookie sales start Jan. 10. Anyone interested in ordering cookies may reach out to any Girl Scout that they know, or visit GirlScoutCookies.org and search for hot spots or cookie booths. This will indicate troops selling in nearby public locations such as grocery or hardware stores.
The sale of cookies began in 1917 when a Girl Scout troop in Oklahoma baked cookies as a service project and sold them to finance troop activities. Today nearly 200 million boxes are sold annually. All of the revenue earned after paying the baker stays with the local council – roughly 75 percent of the cookie sales.
Do you want to be a Girl Scout?
Girl Scout registration was held at the Hussey-Mayfield Library December 17. The event allows girls interested in Scouting to be placed with an established troop or put in contact with other families looking for a troop in the same age group. While it only takes three girls to start a troop, a minimum of five is ideal. Roughly 11 new troops have been registered in the Zionsville area this school year.
Parents who are interested in their daughters becoming a Girl Scout may send a message to [email protected] or visit GSCI.org and fill out an interest form.
