February 5, 2009 Issue
Girl Scout Cookies Are Here
Buy an Extra Box or Two for Active-Duty Military Personnel
Last Friday, Watauga County Girl Scouts took delivery of 1,869 cases of Girl Scout Cookies. Delivery men unloaded dolly after dolly of cases from the truck. Photo by Kathleen McFadden
You may have already seen them—local Girl Scouts staffing tables piled high with boxes of cookies—in front of local stores.
This year’s shipment of Thin Mints, Caramel deLites®, Shortbread, Peanut Butter Patties, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Lemonades, Thanks-A-Lot and Daisy-Go-Rounds arrived last Friday, and local troops were already stocked, organized and ready to sell on Saturday morning at Boone Mall.
In Watauga County, 215 girls are involved in scouting, and according to Membership Specialist Nancy Blair, those girls will sell every single one of the 22,428 boxes of cookies that arrived by truck last Friday. Many of the boxes have been presold; the remaining boxes will be on tables set up at Lowes Foods, Lowes Home Improvement, Harris Teeter, Boone Mall and the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. “Per service unit size,” Blair said, “Watauga County sold the most cookies last year [in the Catawba Valley Council].”
Community cookie sales will continue through March 3, and each box costs $3.50.
Since its inception in 1917, the annual Girl Scout cookie sale has become a famous nationwide event, and the people who purchase the cookies have a much broader impact than just taking home a box or two of cookies to enjoy.
The cookie sale is the year’s big fundraiser and provides the money for girls to attend summer camp and to go on trips they would not otherwise have the opportunity to take.
“Some of the girls have never been outside of North Carolina, and some have never left the county,” Blair said. But local troops plan age-appropriate trips to widen the girls’ experience of the world, provide them with learning opportunities and promote friendships and camaraderie among a group of peers involved in a common adventure. And that’s on top of the activities at troop meetings.
All of the revenue—every penny after paying the baker—remains in the area where the cookies are sold and directly or indirectly benefits local Girl Scouts.
Once again this year, the Girl Scouts will support our military overseas by offering Operation Sweet Treat (OST). Customers can purchase a box or more of cookies and the Scouts will send them to deployed soliders. The Scouts’ goal this year is 13,000 boxes.
Watauga County Girl Scouts will also have a fundraising dessert competition again this year, and organizers are looking for restaurants to participate in the contest. Last year, Storie Street Grill won the Golden Cookie Award for creating the top dessert featuring Girl Scout Cookies. The dessert tasting will be held on Thursday, March 26. Restaurants interested in participating can call Nancy Blair at 828-265-2387.
If you don’t know any Girl Scouts personally and want to place a cookie order, click to www.girlscoutcookies.org, type in your zip code and then provide the requested info for the Girl Scout Council of The Catawba Valley Area. “There’s no excuse for not getting cookies,” Blair said. “We’ll get to you!”
Peanut Butter Girl Scout Cookies Are Safe
Despite nationwide peanut butter recalls, Girl Scout Cookies are safe.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies have indicated that Peanut Corporation of America is the focus of an investigation concerning the recent salmonella outbreak thought to be caused by tainted peanut butter. PCA does not supply peanut butter used in any variety of Girl Scout Cookies.
According to ABC Bakers – Interbake Foods, the cookie supplier for the local council, the peanut butter used in Peanut Butter Patties and Peanut Butter Sandwiches comes from Hampton Farms. On January 12, FDA auditors inspected production and records for Hampton Farms going back to August 2008. FDA reported no contamination of the samples, and the records supported that Hampton Farms has neither shipped peanut butter to nor received peanut butter from PCA.
Choose Your Favorites
According to the Girl Scouts, Thin Mints are the top selling cookie in the world, and Caramel deLites is the third. But in addition to these, cookie lovers have six other flavors to savor.
Caramel deLites—Delicate vanilla cookies drenched in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and laced with cocoa stripes
Peanut Butter Patties—Crispy vanilla cookies layered with real peanut butter and blanketed with a chocolaty coating
Shortbread—Traditional favorite with a buttery, light flavor
Thin Mints—Thin chocolate wafers dipped in a rich chocolaty coating with a burst of pure peppermint
Peanut Butter Sandwich—Deliciously smooth peanut butter sandwiched between crunchy oatmeal cookies
Thanks-A-Lot—Heart-warming shortbread cookies dipped in rich fudge and topped with an embossed thank you message in one of five languages
Lemonades—Savory slices of shortbread with a refreshingly tangy lemon icing
Daisy-Go-Rounds—Reduced fat crispy cinnamon flowers blooming with flavor in every bite and packaged in five single-serve snack packs
Community Interest
News & Notes
Events
Arts & Entertainment
