Six Rivers Girl Scouts Celebrate 100 Years

Hoopa’s Girl Scout troop 70554 hosted their annual cookie rally at the Community Center in Hoopa on Sunday. Kyle Sorell (left) demonstrates excitement as she plays Guess My Cookie with fellow scouts McKenna Stephens (right) Karlee Lewis, and Carina Peterson. The girls learned marketing techniques, played cookie bingo, taste tested the cookies, and made concession boxes to hold their cookies. February 13 to March 18, Six Rivers troops make their way door-to-door and at booth sales all over Northern California with cookies in hand. / Photo courtesy of Kristin Cairns Peckham.

Press Release, Girl Scouts of Northern California

A cookie-consumer revolution is  underway, just as the Girl Scouts of Northern California (Girl Scouts NorCal) kick-off “Forever Green” – a year-long , 100^th anniversary celebratory campaign chock-full of new events, initiatives, programs and plans. For cookie sales starting February 13, Six Rivers Girl Scouts are teaming up with Intuit’s GoPayment mobile platform to launch a council-wide pilot program for accepting debit/credit cards on cookie purchases.

From February 13 – March 18, Six Rivers troops make their way door-to-door and at booth sales all over Northern California with cookies in hand.   At $4 a box, there are eight delectable delights to choose from: Thin Mints, Samoas®, Tagalongs®, Dulce de Leche, Trefoils, Do-Si-Dos®, Thank U Berry Munch™ and debut of Savannah Smiles, a crisp, lemon wedge centennial specialty named to commemorate the birthplace of Girl Scouts USA in Savannah, Georgia in 1912. All of the cookie varieties have 0 grams trans fat per serving and have no high fructose corn syrup, seven varieties have no artificial colors, and five varieties contain no hydrogenated oils. Visit www.ilovecookies.org for all the info on the GSNorCal cookie sale.

“Local Girl Scouts use their cookie money to fund trips to 100^th Anniversary Celebrations at Redwood Acres on March 17 and the Alameda County Fairgrounds in May,” said Six Rivers Service Unit Director, Kristen Peckham. “We also fund service projects such as helping stray animals, planting flowers in local parks and donating to help orphans worldwide.

Are you sweet as a Samoa or fresh as a Thin Mint? Thanks to the FREE Girl Scout cookie locator mobile app, smartphone users and cookie-seekers can search for local sales or by zip code, share locations with friends, add sale dates to their calendars, and discover their own Girl Scout Cookie Personality.  The app also provides nutritional details on each cookie and allows customers to sign up for email alerts when cookie booths spring up, fully loaded with locations by February 13. Users can download through the iPhone app store, Android marketplace or by calling **GSCOOKIES to have the app sent directly to your smartphone via text reply.**  For desktop discovery visit www.ilovecookies.org.

Cookies Taste Good, Do Good

Indulging your sweet tooth never felt so satisfying.  Proceeds from these once-a-year treats inspire girls of all ages to become confident and learn about financial literacy as well as provide funds for service projects, learning programs, and fees for camps and memberships. With the Gift of Caring program, customers can purchase boxes and have them donated directly to the military to bring a taste of home for troops overseas, or to a local food banks to bring cheer to those in need.

“Every year someone asks me, what the cookies actually do?” says Kristen Peckham. “The cookie program not only gives back with Gift of Caring, but girls learn new skills and find empowerment through ownership of a project. They learn to set goals, make decisions, manage finances, develop their interpersonal skills, and begin to understand general business savvy and ethics.”

More GS Nor Cal Cookie Links:

• Visit www.ilovecookies.org
• Twitter.com/gsnorcal for “Sweet Tweets”
• Facebook Group: facebook.com/gsnorcal

**standard text rates apply. Reply with STOP to cease messages after download.

About Girl Scouts of Northern California and 100 years “Forever Green” in 2012

Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place and over the last 100 years, “green” has become synonymous with Girl Scouting. For 2012 Girl Scouts NorCal are celebrating all the ways in which women are “greening” our future – through economic development, spiritual development, innovation, health, education, the arts, environment, and philanthropy.

This year-long celebration, titled “Forever Green,” includes a series of activities and special events for Girl Scouts and will also pay tribute to 100 women “greening the future for Northern California” at a several key events throughout 2012. Girl Scouts of Northern California serves a diverse membership of 47,000 girls and over 32,000 adult volunteers in a nineteen-county area from Gilroy to the Oregon border.

To learn more about Girl Scouts of Northern California, visit www.GirlScoutsNorCal.org

###