By DARCY GRAY
Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland
WICHITA – Kansas Girl Scouts are developing leadership and entrepreneurial skills through the Girl Scout Cookie Program, and this year, there’s a new Girl Scout S’mores cookie to celebrate 100 years of Girl Scout Cookies.
During Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland’s Cookie Sale, which starts Feb. 11 and ends March 19, Girl Scouts are learning essential life skills – goal-setting, decision-making, money management, people skills and business ethics – that stay with them forever.
A century ago, girls started participating in what would evolve into the largest entrepreneurial training program for girls in the world – the Girl Scout Cookie Program – through which girls learn skills to become effective leaders, manage finances, and gain self-sufficiency and confidence in handling money. The first-known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, did what Girl Scouts everywhere do: They had a great idea, got together, and took action to make it a reality. They decided to fund their projects by selling homemade cookies, and the idea spread.
Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland’s new S’mores cookie celebrating this centennial is a crispy graham cookie double-dipped in crème icing and finished with a scrumptious chocolatey coating. S’mores, which are vegan and free of artificial colors, preservatives and partially hydrogenated oils, are the ninth cookie variety.
Priced at the same $4 per package, with all proceeds staying in Kansas to support Girl Scouting, the 2017 Cookie Lineup includes: Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Patties, Lemonades, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shortbreads, Thanks-A-Lots, S’mores and the gluten-free Trios. Girl Scout S’mores cookies also complement the Girl Scout tradition of making s’mores in the outdoors, as the recipe for a s’more dates back to a 1925 Girl Scout Leader magazine and a 1927 Girl Scouts of the USA handbook.
Girl Scout Cookies not only help girls earn money for fun, educational activities, camping, and community service projects, they also play a role in transforming girls into G.I.R.L.s (Go-getters, Innovators, Risk-takers, Leaders) as they learn life skills that set them up for success.
Starting from the first-known sale in 1917, Girl Scout Cookies have gone on to become a part of American culture and history. Babe Ruth promoted the Million Cookie Drive during the 1924 World Series. Former First Lady Lou Henry Hoover inspired the first organized national sale of Girl Scout Cookies in 1933. Girls used cookie proceeds during that time to help communities cope with the debilitating effects of the Great Depression, and collected clothing and food for those in need. During World War II, when there was a global shortage of cooking ingredients, Girl Scouts sold calendars with images of girls engaged in wartime service activities. Then, they used some of their calendar proceeds to support the war effort through humanitarian actions like farm aid projects and victory gardens.
The Girl Scouts’ commitment to giving back continues each year, as girls not only invest their cookie earnings into service projects across Kansas, they also give customers the option of sharing cookies with service men and women, their families, and local charities like the Kansas Food Bank. Through Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland’s Cookie Share Program, Cookie Sale customers can simply purchase a package of cookies and donate it. Since the Cookie Share Program began in 2010, Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland has distributed more than 117,500 packages of cookies to members of the military and local charities, including 23,000 “Cookie Shares” in 2016.
Make plans today to invest in local girls and your community by supporting the Girl Scout Cookie Sale. The Cookie Sale starts Feb. 11 across 80 Kansas counties served by Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland. Looking for a local Girl Scout, aka Cookie Boss? To find cookies, just enter your zip code at kansasgirlscouts.org, call the Cookie Hotline at 888-686-MINT, or download the free, official Girl Scout Cookie Finder app for iOS and Android mobile devices. Go to kansasgirlscouts.org to learn more.