Girl Scout cookies are on sale again and scouts will have a box or two, ready for you, at a nearby shopping center or boardwalk along the beachfront.

A Girl Scout, one of many around town, was spied on the Mission Beach boardwalk selling those delectable cookies from her wagon on Sunday, Jan. 28, the first day of Girl Scout cookie season.

Through Sunday, March 10, Girl Scouts and troops will rally their communities, neighbors, and friends to support the world’s largest girl-led entrepreneurial program, purchasing Girl Scout cookies available in nine varieties at $6 per package. The 2024 cookie program lineup includes classics like Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils, Tagalongs, and other fan favorites.

One hundred percent of the Girl Scout Cookie Program proceeds to stay local, making Girl Scouting available and affordable in San Diego and Imperial counties. Cookie program funding benefits include year-round leadership development programs, volunteer training, outdoor adventures at Girl Scout summer camp, property upkeep, financial assistance, and more.

“This year, more than 9,500 resourceful Girl Scout entrepreneurs will engage in the cookie program,” said Carol Dedrich, CEO of Girl Scouts San Diego. “The 2024 program theme, ‘Unbox the Future,’ speaks to overcoming the barriers that often keep girls boxed in. The impact of the cookie program is tremendous. Girl Scouts are equipped with vital and out-of-the-box entrepreneurial and life skills that help prepare them for a limitless, equitable future.”

Through the cookie program, girls learn five essential life and business skills — goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics — while growing in confidence and leadership. They also earn individual rewards and troop funding for travel, community service projects, and badge workshops.

San Diego Community Newspaper Group caught up with a couple of Girl Scout cookie sellers and their moms: 6-year-old scout Sammy Jo and mom Cissy Phillips from La Jolla; and teenager Savannah and mom Danielle Beck-Stack from Pacific Beach, to talk about cookie selling.

Cissy Phillips noted Sammy Jo, with Girl Scout Troop 4405 in La Jolla, is on the autism spectrum and, while just having joined Girl Scouts in September 2023, she has “already earned about 20 badges, absolutely ‘loves’ Girl Scouts, and is ‘very excited’ to be selling cookies.”

“I am a Daisy, the first level of Girl Scouts,” said Sammy adding, “This is my first year. I’m going to be working on talking to people selling cookies.”

Asked about her “pitch,” Sammy replied: “Hi, do you want to buy cookies? One box is $6, and two boxes is $12. If you don’t want to buy them for yourself, you can send them (to the military) through Operation Thin Mint.”

Of the impact of Girl Scouting on her daughter, Cissy Phillips said: “It’s been a really neat experience for her to go through. Everyone we’ve met has been so warm and welcoming to Sammy Jo. She has found a place where she can flourish as an individual. She’s a little quiet and it (scouting) is good for her socialness as well.”

In contrast, teenage Savannah Stack is at the highest ambassador level of Girl Scouting and has been selling cookies for nine years. “I look forward to selling,” she said. “I always enjoy seeing and talking to new people. It can be hard (selling).”

Of her “pitch” Savannah said she asks potential customers “in the nicest way possible with a smile,” if they’re interested in buying cookies. Sometimes, she added, scouts are challenged by potential customers asking unanticipated questions like “Which cookies are the favorites, or have the least amount of sugar or calories.”

Stack enjoys the camaraderie of being in a Girl Scout Troop noting, “I’ve made so many new friends and it’s a great experience.”

Pointing out cookie selling is not “mandatory at all but optional” for a scout, Stack noted, “You can get awards and badges too for selling certain amounts of boxes.”

Of the experience of selling cookies, Savannah said: “You have to have a lot of endurance – and a lot of patience.”

“Savannah has really learned a lot from selling and I or my husband are always with her,” noted her mom Danielle adding, “We do everything you can think of in terms of canvassing the whole (PB) area, including approaching our friends, neighbors and families. It’s been fun.”

GIRL SCOUTS SAN DIEGO

Girl Scouts of the USA has a mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. As one of 111 councils, Girl Scouts San Diego provides year-round activities and volunteer training for more than 24,000 girls and adults in San Diego and Imperial counties.

• Sunday, Jan. 28 – Girl Scout Cookie Program began in San Diego and Imperial counties.
• Friday, Feb. 9 – Cookie booths open. Consumers can use the Cookie Finder to locate a booth near them.
• Friday-Sunday, Feb. 16-18 – Cookies on Tap Weekend, presented by Girl Scouts San Diego, takes place at breweries and brewpubs across San Diego County.
• Sunday, March 10 – Girl Scout Cookie Program ends.
• Saturday, May 4 – OTM Sendoff and Family Festival returns aboard the USS Midway, where cookie program entrepreneurs and their families celebrate the success of Operation Thin MintSM (OTM), a service project that originated in San Diego and has benefited military troops and veterans for more than two decades. To learn more about Girl Scouts San Diego and its cookie program, visit sdgirlscouts.org/cookies.