Staff writer
Saturday will be a day many people have waited a year to see. Girl Scout cookie sales will kick off this weekend.
Scouts in Marion, Peabody, Hillsboro, and Lincolnville will be peddling the tasty treats through March 20 — or until supplies run out.
This year’s cookie lineup includes traditional shortbread cookies, thin mints, peanut butter patties, caramel delites, peanut butter sandwiches, fudge-dipped shortbread cookies, cranberry citrus cookies, lemonade cookies and Trios, a gluten-free cookie with chocolate chips in a peanut-butter oatmeal cookie base.
Brenda Soyez, cookie cupboard manager for the county and Marion Girl Scouts leader, said cookie kickoff, when scouts have a fun evening while picking up cookies, will be Friday.
“We usually have about six different stations with games, crafts and activities,” Soyez said.
Scouts will sell cookies every other Friday evening and Saturday at Carlsons’ Grocery in Marion.
Last year Marion County scouts sold over 20,000 packages of cookies, Soyez said. This year, with a longer cookie sale season that goes over spring break, Soyez hopes the scouts surpass that number.
Cookies are $4 a package. Out of that, the troops gets 50 cents a package and the girls get prizes or opt for $10 for every 30 packages they sell. The money for the girls is given as cookie credits that can be used at the Girl Scout Store or used to attend Girl Scout functions or camp.
There are many activities to choose from, Soyez said.
“My cadettes are going to spend a night at the salt mines in Hutchinson at the end of this month,” Soyez said.
Senior Girl Scout Leader Bobby Richmond said her 12-member troop has preordered cookies and will begin selling them on Saturday.
It’s not easy for the older girls to devote as much time to selling cookies because of their busy schedules, but cookie time is one of the fun parts of being in Girl Scouts, Richmond said.
Even if a scout doesn’t come to the door offering cookies, people who want them can still get them.
“If someone is wanting cookies, they could contact me and I could get a girl to them,” Soyez said.
Soyez can be reached at (620) 382-6193.