It's Cookie Time!

The Girl Scouts Cookie Season is officially open ~ and with it comes an incredible amount of work and stress for me as a Girl Scouts Leader!!  In addition to setting up booth sale locations, times and schedules, it's also my responsibility to order, pick-up and distribute countless cases of cookies for my entire troop!  As if that weren't enough, I'm also required to enter in every girls selling information on some cookie website which will likely be very time consuming and - you guessed it - stressful!!  All of this is done in addition to running my weekly meetings.

On Saturday morning I pick up my Troops first order of cookies; 50 cases.  Once I have the cases home I have to split them up evenly between the girls in my Troop and then place my next order, as already the girls have sold more cookies than what I initially ordered.  I then have to prepare for our 1st Booth Sale, which is the following weekend.  That requires a separate order of cookies that need to be placed ahead of time.  I've also got it into my head that I want to create some kind of a "booth display" - because clearly I have all the time in the world ::enter sarcasm::, right?  So...last weekend I poured myself a glass (or three..) of Sangria and started working on some posters.  The deal is I do all of the stencil writing and then Bella colors/paints the letters.  It's fun for Bella.  Not so much for me. I'm banking on the fact that the end result should generate more attention & traffic once the girls start selling.

I decided to hold a 2 week pre-sale event for Bella to get her going.  I invited the other parents in my Troop to do the same, as the competition will get quite fierce once the girls actually have their cookies in hand. So,Bella created a cute little video and made a handwritten poster board which we posted to the internet for family to see.  It was a brilliant idea, as it brought in a lot of sales in a short amount of time (over 50 boxes sold so far!).  Once she actually gets her supply of cookies she will hit the road with her Powerwheels and Trailer full of cookies and try to rope in as many sales as she can going door to door.  Now this is where being the Girl Scouts Leader has a bit of an advantage; Bella will be the first one to receive her cookies and therefore will be the first one to hit the roads.  I am hoping she's able to sell a total of 200 boxes.

The girls do not earn a whole lot of money per box..which is too bad.  Dollar wise Bella has already sold a couple hundred dollars worth!  But they do earn "cookie credits" which can be used towards summer camp.  The summer camp program here is outrageously expensive - approx $400 for a week of day camp!  I am hoping that Bella can sell enough boxes of cookies to pay for at least half of a week - and then we will apply for financial aid to help out with the rest of cost.

So, family & friends, It's Cookie Time!  If you love cookies (really, who doesn't?!) please consider ordering from your favorite super long-haired Girl Scout!  And feel free to spread the word for her, too!  Friends of friends of friends and so on :)  The more, the merrier!