Cookie Mom

This is Ava's first year in girl scouts, so it is also our first year to experience selling girl scout cookies. And for some reason that I can't clearly remember, I was drafted or volunteered (it's fuzzy) to be "cookie mom." Cookie mom is the fun title given to the one who organizes the entire cookie selling experience for the troop. So far, the only perk of being cookie mom is the adorable shirt bearing that title that my friend Sara bestowed on me.

In honor of our first year selling the cookies, here are my favorite little known trivia facts about girl scout cookies:

About 200 million boxes are sold every cookie season; the Girl Scout cookie program has generated about $700 million per year since 1999.

Girl Scout cookie sales began in 1917 in Muskogee, Okla., when the Mistletoe troop began baking and selling cookies in its high school cafeteria as a service project.

In 1942, Girl Scouts sold calendars in lieu of cookies due to sugar, flour and butter shortages during World War II.

Thin Mints are the biggest seller, making up 25 percent of all sales

Different types of cookies are sold in different regions at varying prices set by individual Girl Scout councils. And sometimes even the same cookies have different names.

Jennifer Sharpe, age 15, of Dearborn, Mich., holds the record for most cookies ever sold, with 17,328 boxes in 2008.

I am certainly hoping Ava doesn't come anywhere close to Ms. Sharpe's record, especially since as cookie mom it's my responsibility to go pick up the troop's order when the time comes!

I have learned a lot about cookie sales this year. One thing I found especially interesting is that while it is about raising money so the troop can participate in fun and service-oriented projects, it is also about developmental goals. I had never thought about the life skills a girl can practice while selling girl scout cookies. The cookie program highlights 5 of these skills:

Goal Setting, Decision Making, Money Management, People Skills, and Business Ethics. I agree that the cookie program offers great opportunity for girls to grow in these areas.

So, if you'd like Ava to call you to take your cookie order, let me know. Or please support another young girl scout friend or relative as they practice these life goals as well. I am certainly going to do my part and buy as many Samoas as possible.