Valley Girl Scouts begin three weeks of cookie sales

Forget the diet: Girl Scout cookies are back in the Valley.

The Girl Scouts of Central California South kicked off the three-week cookie selling season on Sunday with its cookie mega-drop.

Six freight trucks in Fresno and others in Visalia and Bakersfield dropped off 18,000 cases of cookies to fill pre-sale orders and tables for booth sales that begin on Friday.

Popular varieties like caramel deLites, thin mint, peanut butter patties and shortbread cookies are back, along with a new flavor: mango crèmes.

This year, the councilwide goal is to sell more than 1 million boxes of cookies, said Cathy Ferguson, the council’s chief executive officer. Each box sells for $4. The local council serves more than 12,000 girls in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties.

On Sunday, nearly 60 volunteers, including high school students and employees from Cargill meat plant and the REI Fresno store, helped load cases of cookies into the cars of troop leaders in the Save Mart Center parking lot.

The excitement in Cheryl Torralva’s Daisy and Brownie troop — girls in kindergarten to third grade — has been building as the girls learned about money, how to sell the cookies and how to speak to people in preparation for their Fresno booth sale, Torralva said as she waited in line for her cookies.

“We were anticipating on (selling) 1,000 boxes, but have passed 2,000 in pre-sale,” Torralva said.

The troop is selling cookies to raise money for a summer camping trip at the zoo, Torralva said.

While the cookie sale is a fun and tasty activity, Ferguson said the sale teaches girls about finances, marketing and leadership.

“It teaches business ethics and helps them to grow so they are learning to be self-sustaining,” Ferguson said. “Behind these cookies are lots of lessons.”

Shannon Smith of Clovis has two daughters — a ninth-grader and a sixth-grader — selling cookies. The oldest has a goal to sell 750 boxes this year, Smith said.

She divided the neighborhood by street and has figured out how many boxes she would have to sell every day to make her goal, Smith said.

Girl Scouts can earn two cookie badges, two financial badges and a cookie pin through this activity. Those who sell 1,000 boxes or more are honored by getting into the Super Secret Sellers Society Honors.

“We have dozens of them” in the society, Ferguson said. “They are out there working.”

By BoNhia Lee