You see them everywhere as you shop on the weekends, offering brightly colored boxes of sweet treats. Maybe you are able to politely tell them “No, thank you,” or maybe you cave and buy just one more box from them – even though you just bought some last weekend.
They are your local Girl Scouts, ranging from kindergarteners to high schoolers, and they are tempting you to buy as many boxes of your favorite cookies as you can afford. But did you know it is about more than selling cookies? Well, I didn’t.
For years, if I saw a booth set up in front of a store, I would select the opposite entrance or quickly rush in and out in hopes they would not catch me. I took comfort in knowing my husband had already ordered our cookies.
That all changed this year. Now I’m the mom of a Daisy and I am out there with these girls on the weekend, helping my daughter and her troop.
The journey started when an excited 6-year-old bound into my classroom after school one day and begged to go sign up for Girl Scouts that night. Of course it wasn’t quite as easy as signing up that night, but over the course of a couple weeks, I was able to get our middle child signed up to be a Daisy, the youngest of the Girl Scouts. I knew I was signing her up with a good organization and she would learn some things, but I never dreamed how much she would change.
After six months, I am starting to seeing the changes in my Daisy as she grows. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some Monday evenings I deal with tears because the last thing my exhausted girl wants to do is go to a meeting for an hour and half after putting in several hours at school. But most of the time, I get to drop off an excited little girl who talks my ear off when I pick her up.
She enjoys being with a group of girls participating in different activities such as planting a garden, participating in teas, dancing, lock-ins, and her favorite, saying the Girl Scout Promise. While she is with her troop, she learns many values that will help her in life such as how to be:
- honest and fair
- courageous and strong
- respectful of herself and others
- responsible for her actions and words
- a good steward of resources
But she has also learned so much more. Little did I know that the most dramatic change would come from Girl Scout cookie sales. At the start of cookie season, my daughter would stand behind my legs and beg me to go with her to do the talking, but somewhere along the way something changed.
I don’t quite know when it happened, but she went from being too shy to talk in front of other adults, to bounding into my classroom at the end of the day talking non-stop no matter who was in my room. She went from whispering replies to teachers in my building to seeking them out and having conversations. At cookie booths she boldly greets people and asks, “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?”
My Daisy found her voice, her confidence. For that, it is worth all the meetings on Monday evenings, the following sleepy Tuesday mornings, and even standing out in 40 degree weather on a Saturday selling cookies.
Let’s take a moment to honor Girl Scouts for all they do for our girls. To learn more visit girlscouts.org; to find a troop in the Midlands contact the Mountains to Midlands Council.
