When life gives you cookies… freshman sells, sells, sells

Girl scout shoots for Gold Award

For years, Girl Scouts have gone door to door to ask customers to buy cookie boxes.

With the impact of Covid-19 and recent inflation, selling cookies isn’t exactly what it used to be.

“Ever sense Covid, the organization created Digital Cookie,” freshman girl scout Lauren Pratt said, “and it’s made our jobs a lot easier. We can send out links to family and friends and then they can buy their cookies online which is really nice. And then they can select to have them shipped.”

While playing sports wasn’t her thing, selling cookies became a competitive outlet for Pratt. Starting Girl Scouts in first grade, she has continued for the past 9 years. 

“Selling girl scout cookies is kind of a passion of mine,” she said. ” I used to say selling girl scout cookies was my competitive sport. So I think since the second or third grade I’ve always sold 600 or more boxes. This past year I think my number was 816 .”

However, the involvement in Girl Scout reaches far beyond selling cookies for mother Sherryl Pratt.

“She has learned a lot about working with other people,” Sherryl said. “They each pick badges they want to teach, so she has to do the research around what examples they are going to use, what activities they are going to do, so it’s kind of cool to see how much leadership and goal settings, all of that they kind of grow into throughout Girl Scouts.”

The journey isn’t over for Lauren. Selling hundreds of boxes is one thing, yet she has her sights set on something brighter.

“The next big step is the gold award,” Lauren said. “It’s kind of similar in comparison to an Eagle Scout and Boy Scout. A Eagle Scout has to like earn all of  these requirements, and then complete the Eagle Scout project is kind of the big thing. So the public service project that you will complete as a part of your gold award is the equivalent. I have started to work on that, and I’m hoping to definitely get it going and maybe completed this summer. That is my ultimate girl goal in girl scouts, to earn my gold award.”