It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time

Girl Scout cookie connoisseurs, wait no more. It’s that time of year again. It’s time to buy up those boxes of Thin Mints and Caramel deLites. Girl Scout troops and their parents will set up shop in various spots across Southeastern Pennsylvania from Jan. 20 through March 6. 

Last weekend, hundreds of Girl Scouts and their parents, a large portion of them from the Delaware County area, lined up outside Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield for the so-called “cookie mega drop.” It’s basically a drive-through, where troops pull up into pre-assigned lanes to pick up their initial orders from tractor-trailers loaded with cases of cookies. About 15,000 cases were handed out at O’Hara on Saturday. About 163,000 cases total were distributed at several locations across Eastern Pennsylvania, according to Betsy Taube, director of communications for Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP).

Several troops from the Media Patch area were out at O’Hara to get their goods. Allison Kirchoff, of Middletown, is selling cookies for the second year in a row, but this is her first year selling as a Girl Scout. The former Brownie says she has even bigger goals this time around.

“I want to sell more boxes than last year. I want to sell 200 boxes or more. My dad will help me sell cookies at work, and I’ll go door-to-door selling,” she explains.

This season, the Girl Scouts in our region will have eight varieties available at $3.50 a box. They include Thin Mints, Shortbread, Peanut Butter Patties, Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Lemonades, which are shortbread cookies topped with tangy lemon icing.

New for this year are Thanks-a-Lots. They're shortbread cookies with chocolate on the bottom, and are wrapped in eco-friendly packaging that will help reduce landfill waste, according to a GSEP press release. Also new this year are Shout-Outs.  They are Belgian-style wafers with leadership messages, like "change" and "learn," baked right on top.   

Whatever sweet treat you prefer, you can satisfy your cookie craving by visiting the many booths set up all over the Media Patch region starting Jan. 20. To find out where the nearest booth is to you, log onto the GSEP website at gsep.org, and enter your zip code for a full listing. At this time, Girl Scout cookies are not available for purchase online.

The money raised through these sales, aside from a portion paid to the baking companies, goes right back to the Girl Scouts to fund programs throughout the year. The cookie sale, though, is so much more than a fundraiser, according to GSEP CEO Natalye Paquin, Esq. She says it teaches the girls valuable life lessons.

“For more than 75 years, the Girl Scout Cookie Program has helped girls build skills they’ll use for life, including goal-setting, decision-making, money-management, and business ethics. Proceeds support the development and delivery of leadership programs that serve more than 41,000 girls in nine Pennsylvania counties,” says Paquin.

The cookie sale also helps support other community organizations, such as local food banks and the military. Through the “Cookies from Home” program, the Girl Scouts collect donations for our soldiers deployed overseas. You can help by purchasing an extra box or two, which will be shipped at a later date. This year, GSEP hopes to collect 4 million packages of cookies for our military men and women, according to a GSEP press release. 

Did you know these Girl Scout fun facts? 

• The biggest sellers are: 25 percent Thin Mints, 19 percent Caramel deLites, 13 percent Peanut Butter Patties, 11 percent Peanut Butter Sandwich, 9 percent Shortbread
• Each year, about 2.8 million Girl Scouts sell almost 200 million packages of cookies.
• The Cookie Program is the largest girl-led business with $700 million in sales.
• The first known Girl Scout cookie sale traces back to December 1917 in Muskogee, OK, when a troop baked and sold cookies at a high school cafeteria.
• In 1933, the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia Council sold cookies in the city’s gas and electric company display window for $.23 per box.
• Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania is the nation’s seventh largest cookie-seller.

These facts are according to girlscouts.org and a press release issued by gsep.org.

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