Local Girl Scout troop raising funds with annual cookie sale
It’s Girl Scout Cookie time, and the members of Breckenridge’s Troop 8356 have already been out and about participating in the annual sale.
The girls mostly sell on weekends, and troop leader Kim Fuller said that they will always have a booth in Breckenridge on the weekends through the end of the sale, Feb. 24. Check with Fuller, one of the Girl Scouts or look on the service unit/troop’s Facebook page (Breckenridge Texas SU 753 Girl Scout Troop 8356) for updates.
Breckenridge Girl Scout Rylee Fuller makes a sign to hold up at a cookie sale last weekend. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/ Breckenridge Texan)
This year’s cookie lineup includes the old favorites – Thin Mints, Shortbreads, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Peanut Butter Patties, Caramel DeLites, Lemonades and Thanks-a-Lots – as well as a couple of newer cookies – S’Mores and the gluten-free Caramel Chocolate Chip. For more details on each cookie, check out the Cookie section below.
The cookies cost $4 per box, except for the new gluten-free cookies, which cost $5 per box.
Part of the purchase price goes to the baking company that makes the cookies, but about 70 percent of the retail price goes to the local troop and the council. Breckenridge’s troop is in the Texas Oklahoma Plains council that covers a large area from the Texas Panhandle (and three Oklahoma Panhandle counties) to Abilene to Wichita Falls to Fort Worth.
The troops and the councils use the funds for incentives for the girls, camp fees, etc. The troops receive a portion of the money and choose how to spend it.
“The girls decide what they want to do, and then we figure out how to make it happen,” Fuller said. “This is truly a girl-led Girl Scout troop.”
The local troop uses their portion of the cookie money to fund projects for the troop and community service projects that they perform around town. Fuller said Troop 8356 performs about eight community service projects a year.
“We donate some to the animal shelter,” said Girl Scout Rihana Fuller. “And, some of the girls are working on their Bronze Awards and are doing community service projects.”
Some other activities the girls have done in the past include donating smoke alarms to the local fire department, attending the Haunted Forest camp in October and going to IFly, an indoor sky diving facility, participating in activities at the Breckenridge Airshow, visiting a water park, learning how money is made at the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, and more.
“And, we go to camp,” Girl Scout Rachel Burchett said, confirming that camping is still a major part of the Girl Scout experience.
“We bought some camping gear so that we can work on our camping skills,” Kim Fuller said, adding that the troop has been on several types of camp-outs, as well as some of the girls attending overnight summer Girl Scout camps.
Additionally, the girls who sell cookies earn “Cookie Bucks” that they can spend on things like camp fees, products from the Girl Scout stores, etc. “Several of the girls earned two weeks of camp last year,” Fuller said.
According to a study by the Girl Scout organization, two-thirds of the girls who participate in the cookie program learn five crucial skills — goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. As part of the cookie sales process, the girls learn things such as how to market the cookies, how to make change, how to talk to customers, and much more.
Troop 8356 is the only Girl Scout troop in Breckenridge, and there are 15 members. Last year, the Breckenridge troop sold 13,000 boxes of cookies.
The Cookies
Girl Scout councils contract with one of two licensed bakers, whose recipes and ingredients are similar but may differ slightly. Both companies provide a core slate of traditional cookies, plus one or two additional cookies that are unique to that baker. In a few cases, similar cookies are called different names by the two bakers.
Members of Troop 8356 hold up signs letting the Breckenridge community know that they had cookies for sale last Saturday morning. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/ Breckenridge Texan)
The local Girl Scout troop gets their cookies from ABC Bakers. This year, there are nine types of cookies:
- Thin Mints – a round, mint-flavored chocolate cookie with a chocolaty coating.
- Shortbreads (Trefoils) – a delicate-tasting shortbread in the shape of organization’s iconic trefoil.
- Peanut Butter Sandwiches (Do-Si-Dos) – a crisp and crunchy oatmeal sandwich cookie on the outside and creamy peanut butter inside.
- Peanut Butter Patties (Tagalongs) – a crispy cookie layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolaty coating.
- Caramel DeLites (Samoas) – a crisp cookie, coated in caramel, sprinkled with coconut, and striped with a chocolaty coating.
- Lemonades – a shortbread cookie with lemony icing
- Thanks-a-Lots – a shortbread cookie with fudge on the bottom and the words “Thank You” in English, French, Chinese, Swahili or Spanish embossed on the top.
- S’Mores – a crispy graham cookie double dipped in crème icing and finished with a chocolatey coating.
- Caramel Chocolate Chip – a gluten-free chewy cookie with caramel, semisweet chocolate chips, and a hint of sea salt.
For those with special dietary requirements, the Girl Scouts and ABC Bakers created the chart at the bottom of this page detailing the potential allergens in the cookies. For more details about each type of cookie, look on the boxes of cookies or click here to see more information on the Girl Scout website.
While most Girl Scout cookies are likely eaten straight out of the box, they also can be used in recipes, such as Nutty Caramel Turtles, Thin Mints White Chocolate Biscotti or Lemon Blueberry Crunch Cake. For those and other recipes, click here to see the recipe section of the Girl Scout website.
History of Girl Scout Cookies
According to the Girl Scout website, the sale of cookies as a way to finance troop activities began as early as 1917, five years after Juliette Gordon Low started Girl Scouts in the United States, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project.
Over the next 17 years, Girl Scout troops around the country baked and sold cookies to raise funds. In 1934, the Greater Philadelphia Council took cookie sales to the next level, becoming the first council to sell commercially baked cookies, the website states.
Throughout the 20th century, a variety of bakers – up to 14 different companies at one time – made the cookies for the organization. But, by 2000, there were two bakers and some standard cookies, as well as specialty cookies each year.
Story by Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
Cutline, top photo: Last Saturday, the members of Girl Scout troop 8356 bundled up in hats and coats and braved the chilly temperatures and high winds to sell cookies in the Tractor Supply parking lot. Through the cookie sales program, the girls learn skills such as marketing, talking to customers, making change, and more. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
