After three months of selling, local Girl Scout troops are winding down their cookie sales. Since Jan. 4, troops in both Alexandria and Mount Vernon have been busy selling boxes of thin mints, Samoas and six other flavors. The goal of the greater Washington area was to sell four million boxes.
All proceeds from cookie sales remain with the local council. The City of Alexandria had 37 troops (Brownies, 17; Juniors, 14; Cadettes, 4; Seniors, 2) selling at 24 different locations. There are several troops in Mount Vernon as well.
The girls raise the bulk of the funds for their trips and programs through cookie sales. Money from cookie sales also makes up the major portion of funds needed to fully serve the approximately 47,000 Girl Scouts in the Washington metropolitan area. Of each $3 box of cookies, troops keep 50 cents, $1 goes to the baker (Little Brownie Bakers of Louisville, Ky.), and the remainder goes to the council.
This past month, Girl Scout troops set up booth sales at area shopping locations. Some of the Alexandria stores that allowed scouts to sell at their stores were several locations of Blockbuster; Diversions; Generous George Pizza; several locations of Giant Food Stores; Joe Theismann’s; Patton Travel; Purple Potamus Video; several locations of Safeway; Southern Towers; St. Elmo’s; SunTrust; Trade Center Post Office; and Why Not Shop. In Mount Vernon, Scouts sold at the Safeway and Variety Store on Fort Hunt Road as well as other sites.
Several girls from Brownie Troop 3990 sold over 100 boxes of cookies at the Safeway on Fort Hunt Road last weekend. Troop leader Martha Sullivan said, “We’ve been here the past three years, these guys have been great.”
Kim Cook, booth sale coordinator for the City of Alexandria, sent a thank-you note to the Alexandria merchants and said, “I stopped by most of the locations and was impressed with the smiling Scouts and their creative cookie tables. I train the leaders, and the leaders in turn train the Scouts and the parents, so I hope that all of you had a positive experience with our volunteers this year. I can’t thank you all enough for being so generous to the Girl Scouts. Most of the younger girls have finished selling at this point, but the number of troops selling will drop off to just a few after this weekend. The troops use the money that they raise from cookies to pay for their programs during the year. The older girls are usually saving for trips, and our two Senior troops are going to GSUSA’s Our Cabana in Mexico in June. One of the Cadette troops is on a two-year fund-raising campaign as they save for a pilgrimage to Egypt next year. Several of the Juniors have trips planned to various places up and down the East Coast. Thank you again for your commitment to us year after year. This is my fifth year as the booth coordinator, and I think that we have the best merchants in the metro area. We realize how fortunate we are to have such a caring and generous community. We appreciate you all.”