Ascension Parish Girl Scouts prepare for cookie season

     Cookie season is quickly approaching and the Girls Scouts of Ascension Parish have been training hard for next month's cookie sales. 

      Troops from Prairieville Service Unit 131 and Gonzales Service Unit 132 attended the annual Cookie Rally on Jan. 9 for training on topics such as product knowledge, how to handle money and sales pitches. 

     The educational workshop consisted of six stations, mostly ran by troop leaders and older Girl Scouts, to educate the younger girls and newcomers on how to prepare for the upcoming three-week cookie sales. 

     Among the activities in the three-hour long workshop was a marketing session to train the Scouts on various ways to market to customers by brainstorming ideas such as how to boost sales and different concepts on how to promote the cookies. 

     Another area was set up to educate the girls on safety. Event organizer Kimberly Schwartz said some safety tips for the girls is to be careful with money and not accept anything larger than a $20, never approach cars that ask about cookies and never go door-to-door after dark, among many others. 

     “We always tell the girls to approach the customer when they are on their way out of the store locations , not when they are on their way in,” Schwartz said. “Just for the courtesy of all the locations that are allowing us to sell.”

     An important part of the training was product knowledge, teaching the girls about the new cookies and how they taste so that they can relay the information to customers. Recently the Girl Scouts switched cookie companies to ABC Bakers, causing some cookies to have new names and slightly different tastes, important information the girls must know.  For example, the ever popular Samoas is now called Caramel deLites and Trefoils is now called Shortbread. 

     Seven-year-old Cassidy Whitmer from Prairieville troop said her favorite thing about the workshop was making posters to hang up when they sell cookies at the stores, while seven-year old Skylar Grangier from Gonzales troop said she learned about asking customers if they want to buy cookies or not. 

     “If someone asks if you would like to buy some cookies you say yes or no,” Grangier said. 

      Beverly Cooper, grandmother to Sanaya Cooper from Gonzles Troop 10907, said the rally is an important event because it teaches the girls about respect and how to get along with other people. To Cooper the most important session at the workshop was the cookie tasting so that the girls can “see what the cookies taste like the new ones and old ones, to tell to the customers.”

     Girl Scout cookie pre-orders began on Jan. 15 and can be ordered from girlscouts.org. Booth sales will begin on Feb. 26 and continue through Mar. 13.