Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians Kicks Off Next Century of Female Entrepreneurs with 2018 Girl Scout Cookie Season
The Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians (GSCSA) enters the next century of Girl Scouts selling cookies today. The Girl Scout Cookie Program® not only teaches girls essential entrepreneurial skills but also powers amazing experiences for them across the United States. After last year’s 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts selling cookies, troops in the area are kicking off this season with the return of classic cookie favorites and the 2017 debut flavor of Girl Scout S’mores™, the most popular flavor to launch in the 101 years of Girl Scouts selling cookies. Consumers can now help fuel transformative leadership experiences and build the next generation of entrepreneurs in our area by being a cookie customer to any Girl Scout they know. Girls are taking orders, starting TODAY!
During Girl Scout Cookie season, each G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™ sets out to sell delicious cookies while also building entrepreneurial and business skills that are imperative for leadership and future success. Almost 7,500 local Girl Scouts participated in the cookie program last year, selling 1,696,248 boxes of cookies. And all of the net revenue raised—100 percent of it—stays within the council area. That’s over $1 million in troop and service unit proceeds! Councils use cookie earnings to power amazing experiences for girls through their programming, while girls and their troops decide how to invest in impactful community projects, personal enrichment opportunities, and more. Furthermore, skills girls learn in the cookie program also influence later success: data shows more than half (57 percent) of Girl Scout alumnae in business say the cookie program was beneficial to skills they possess today, such as money management, goal-setting, and public speaking.
“When someone purchases a cookie box from a Girl Scout during the cookie program, they not only buy tasty cookies but also help girls learn essential entrepreneurial skills and power new and unique experiences for them,” says Lynne Fugate, chief executive officer of GSCSA. “It’s truly an investment that lasts a lifetime.”
From a once in a lifetime troop trip across the country to funding service projects within their communities, Girl Scouts are doing amazing things made possible by each and every cookie sale. However, girls’ cookie earnings alone aren’t enough to power the Girl Scout Movement—investing in girls is important year-round, not just during cookie season.
Girls are currently taking orders for cookie purchases either in person or through the Digital Cookie® platform, an innovative and educational web-based addition to the cookie program that helps girls run and manage their Girl Scout Cookie businesses online. Now in its fourth year, the Digital Cookie platform continues to bring Girl Scout programming into the future by providing girls with invaluable business and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills that prepare them for 21st century leadership.
Don’t know a Girl Scout? Don’t worry. Cookie booths open near you on Mar. 2. To find a booth near you, visit www.girlscoutcookies.org or use the official Girl Scout Cookie Finder app, free on iOS and Android devices
