There are certain things that many Americans look forward to in late winter and early spring – better weather, spring, flowers and trees budding, March Madness and something that is universal – Girl Scout cookies.

Many of us got our orders in early – probably from more than one Scout – have received our boxes thin mints, tagalongs and peanut butter sandwiches and are on to buying more cookies.

Girl Scout cookies are officially an American tradition and icon.

But how did the sale of Girl Scout cookies start, how did they become so popular and what does the money generated benefit?

With us on The Spark Wednesday were Jessica Mislinski, Director of Product Program and Cathy Hirko, Director of Marketing for Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania. Both said taste is one of the reasons the cookies sell more than 800 million boxes each year, but Mislinski said there's more to it,"They benefit our girls and troops. But our girls learn so much with every box of cookies that they sell. They learn amazing skills. They learn money management, goal setting, decision making, business ethics, people skills. They learn all of this through the Girl Scout Cookie program. So whenever a customer buys a package of cookies from a Girl Scout, they're supporting more than just those goals that the troop has for what they want to do with those cookies that they sell. They're supporting the skills that the girls are learning and their lifelong skills that they'll take with them into their future careers."

Hirko indicated that social media is a great way for Girl Scouts to market the cookies,"They'll get on their Facebook page, they'll get on TikTok to be able to figure out how to market, just like any business is doing right now. They're figuring it out, and they helped us create a video, for TikTok and for one of the reels for Facebook. And that actually went viral. I think it was over 100,000 views."

Mislinski described the history Girl Scout cookies,"Girl Scout cookies started all the way back in 1917. A Girl Scout troop in Oklahoma called the Mistletoe Troop. They held their first cookie sale. They baked cookies in their own homes, and then they sold them in their high school as part of a service project. And from that point on, Girl Scout cookies just continued to grow. The first Girl Scout Cookie booth was held in 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So that was the very first cookie booth that was held. Girl Scout cookies were sold in every decade since 1917. They did have to pivot a little bit during World War two, and Girl Scouts actually sold calendars instead, because they weren't able to get some of the ingredients to make Girl Scout cookies. So Girl Scouts are definitely, innovative. They've been able to show over the decades that they can, you know. Take any challenge by the hand and just do something great with it."

Mislinski was asked where the money generated from cookie sales goes,"Proceeds from the Girl Scout cookie program are used by local troops to fund a variety of different things. So, different educational field trips, whether that's locally, nationally, internationally, they use the proceeds to purchase different badges and patches and awards. They use it to support community service projects, and just celebrate their time together. They'll take some amazing trips, they'll go camping. They do a lot of different things with the proceeds. And then our council also benefits from the proceeds so it stays local. So we use it to provide programing across our 30 county footprint. And we also use it to provide financial assistance. So that way all girls have the opportunity to participate in Girl Scouts. So all of the proceeds from the Girl Scout Cookie program stay within our council."

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