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Girl Scouts consider Community Service an Important Ingredient in Cookie Sale

Girls reach out to others during annual Cookie Program

January 2009

How are Girl Scouts different from so many other youth organizations? One answer may be the emphasis placed on community service and helping others. Even the annual Cookie Sale, beginning in southeast Louisiana on January 23, offers activities to bring community service ideas to life with its Cookies 4 a Change and Gift of Caring service programs designed to help girls discover, connect, and take action to make the world a better place.

As Girl Scouts gear up for their annual cookie activities, the local council, Girl Scouts Louisiana East, is encouraging Girl Scout troops to demonstrate social activism in addition to the business skills normally associated with the cookie sale, considered by many to be the nation’s premier business and economic literacy initiative.

“This year’s cookie theme is Imagine If We Could Change the World,” said Hem Sheth, the council’s product sales director. “Social responsibility is just one element of a successful business plan.”

            

According to Sheth, through the annual sale Girl Scouts learn to set goals and develop a
plan for reaching those goals. Under the watchful and experienced eye of Girl Scout volunteers, they gain first-hand experience in handling money, taking orders, tallying sales and arranging for deliveries. From beginning to end, the Girl Scout Cookie Program activities are a tested and proven training ground for future business owners, corporate executives and entrepreneurs.  

This year the Girl Scouts are offering one new cookie: Dulce de Leche, pronounced
DOOL-seh deh LEH-chay, a cookie rich with milk caramel chips and stripes inspired by the
desserts of Latin America. Cookies are $3.50 per box upon delivery, and are preservative-free, kosher, with zero trans fat per serving. All cookie sale proceeds remain within the local Girl Scout council, a portion of which goes to Girl Scout troops to fund troop activities and to the council to fund recruitment and training of adult volunteers, maintain camp properties, and support councilwide initiatives.

The Gift of Caring community service project is a voluntary troop project in which girls encourage customers to buy cookies for donation to a non-profit organization selected by the troop. Cookies for a Change is a troop activity that guides girls into combining their own particular social interests and the Girl Scout Leadership Experience keys to leadership: Discover, Connect, Take Action.

Cookies will be delivered beginning March 3 and will be sold at various booth locations
throughout the 23 parishes served by the council beginning March 6 at 5 p.m. until March 22.

Girl Scouting’s mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make
the world a better place. The local council, Girl Scouts Louisiana East, serves girls 5 to 17 in the parishes of Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Washington, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana. To order cookies beginning January 23, call the Cookie Hotline at either Council office; in New Orleans at (504) 733-8220, Baton Rouge at (225) 927-8946, or visit the council website at www.gsle.org.

Media contact: Marianne Addy, VP of Communications
(504) 733-8220, ext. 226 or maddy@gsle.org

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