Programs get Girl Scouts ready for cookie sales

Entering her third year selling Girl Scout Cookies, Kelsie Ryner has decided this is the year she will sell 100 boxes of cookies.

Last year, she recalls, the Burlington troop missed selling the needed number of boxes to take a trip to Adventiureland and ended up doing some consolation activities. Ryner says this year will be different. To that end, she attended the annual Girl Scout cookie rally held Sunday, Jan. 13, in the basement of First United Methodist Church in Mt. Pleasant. She and over 100 of her fellow Scouts moved between stations to learn about entrepreneurship and sales.

'Our troop is supposed to be there, but we got here early and haven't seen them yet,” she said.

During the presentation, she held a plastic bag of the product, which she munched on. Ryner said the S'mores or Thin Mints are her favorite. Debbie Ryner, Kelsie's mother, said she had been excited to try the new gluten-free cookies only to find out none were available at the event.

Overseeing the event, longtime Girl Scout leader Shawna Purdum, the girl experience entrepreneur manager, said the cookie rally was for girls of all ages to learn the five key skills taught during the cookie program, as well as some other topics like safety and more about the products. Usually the rallies are held in each county, but this year the event was regional.

'In the past some of our service units have run these,” Purdum said. 'This is the first year in several years the council has taken on running them.”

She said the five skills the girls learned as they traveled between stations were: goal setting, decision making, people skills, money management, and business ethics. This skills deal with the cookie program as well as life in general.

Purdum explained each Scout set a goal for their sales for the year. She also said people skills, in many cases, are lacking in the electronic age and the sale gives girls the chance to interact with people face-to-face. In the decision-making station, the girls brainstormed ideas for their troop to do with cookie proceeds. Money management taught how to make change.

As part of the events, the girls made paper cellular phones to learn how to sell cookies when the weather was bad and they couldn't get out. They learned to call family and friends.

Girl Scout Cookies have been around over 100 years. Purdum explained the proceeds from cookie sales stay local, except for the money paid for the cookies that are sold.