Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012

Girl Scouts cookies are an investment

Girl Scouts are ringing doorbells across Johnston County. When you answer your door, remember that it's more than a box of cookies - it's a lasting investment in your community.

Girl Scout cookies offer that great familiar taste - from the Girl Scout Thin Mint to the Caramel deLite - but they also allow you to help provide funds for the premier leadership program for girls. No other program offers girls so much in developing courage, confidence and character - and it all starts with a box of cookies.

The Girl Scout Cookie Sale Program is a win-win for everybody. Girls learn valuable life skills like budgeting, time and money management, teamwork, networking, inventory control and problem solving while having fun and helping their troop earn funds to do the great things that girls love to do. And they're helping Girl Scouts of the N.C. Coastal Pines provide many programs and opportunities to the more than 33,000 girls in our 41-county jurisdiction.

Girl Scout cookies have been an American tradition for more than 90 years - and for good reason. Girl Scout cookies are the ultimate comfort food and are a family tradition, with many people purchasing multiple boxes every year to not only enjoy their favorites and new cookies year after year, but also to support girls in our communities.

Those who don't wish to purchase cookies for their own consumption still can assist Girl Scouts by making a purchase and donating the cookies to Operation Cookie Drop, an 8-year-old program that sends cookies to military troops. To date, customer donations have purchased more than 415,000 boxes of cookies for men and women in uniform serving overseas.

As simple as the cookie is, the snack offers Girl Scouts the funds needed to provide programming that offers a life-changing experience during their girlhood. Proceeds from cookie sales fund activities of individual troops and the N.C. Coastal Pines, including financial assistance for girls to participate in events, program fees, volunteer recruitment and training and maintenance of camp properties.

Girl Scout cookies will be sold door to door in central and Eastern North Carolina through March 11. Starting Super Bowl weekend, Girl Scout troops will be selling cookies at booths set up in stores and shopping centers. What's new in this year's cookie sale is that when cookie booths start up next month, many customers will be able to use their credit card when they buy cookies. Girl Scouting has partnered with Sage Mobile Payment to create merchant accounts for each Girl Scout troop that takes part in the new program.

Rusine Mitchell Sinclair

Chief executive officer, Girl Scouts - N.C. Coastal Pines