Local Girl Scouts Start Cookie Sales

Taylor Denson, 15, of Mehlville High School stepped onto the porch of a stranger's house. She looked down at the doormat showing the Three Stooges screaming “Get Out!” and then paused.  After a good laugh with her mom about the awkward situation, she decided to ring the doorbell anyway.

All is fair when a Girl Scout has cookies to sell.

Girl Scouts from all over the community began their annual cookie sales on Saturday. Lucky people who live by a Girl Scout may have already ordered their Thin Mints, but those who miss the Jan. 30 deadline will have to wait until the girls set up at booths at local grocery stores. 

Find out where they will be starting Feb. 23 by visiting the “Cookie Booth Locator” at www.girlscoutsem.org and entering your zip code to find a site near you. Cookie booths will be set up at area businesses from Feb. 23 to March 13.

However, buyers will not see the regular Samoas or Tagalongs on the list this year. Some of the cookies have had a name change, but all of the cookies still exist. The change is due to the Girl Scouts recently switching cookie companies from Little Brownie Bakers to ABC Bakers.

With the change comes new names. Samoas are now Caramel deLites, Trefoils are Shortbreads, and Do-si-dos are Peanut Butter Sandwiches. Thin Mints are, well, Thin Mints.

Tracey Kobermann, cookie sale coordinator for local Girl Scout Troop 214 of Mehlville, says that the cookies still taste the same despite the change in companies.

There are three additions to this year's cookie list. Shout Outs! are described as a “Belgian-style…sensibly sweet treat,” according to the Girl Scout website.  Each cookie is etched with a different inspirational word: "Believe," "Create," "Learn," "Lead," or "Change." With only 5 grams of fat in four cookies, Shout Outs! are one of the healthier choices on the cookie list. Peanut Butter Patties, or Tagalongs, have the most fat grams per cookie weighing in at 8 grams in two cookies.

Also new is the Thanks-A-Lot, a fudge-covered shortbread cookie printed with a “Thank You.” Last is the Lemonade, also a shortbread cookie, but coated with lemon icing. 

Troop 214 wants to earn enough money from their cookie sales this year to take a tropical cruise together. That means that they need to earn more than $5,000.  The eight girls are sophomores in high school and are now ranked as Seniors in Girl Scouts.

Denson and two other members of Troop 214, Krysta Byrne, 16, and Shawna Mitalobich, 16, braved the cloudy, bitter weather on Saturday afternoon. After walking to several houses along Union Road, the girls learned from a neighbor that the street had already bought cookies from another Girl Scout. It was tough cookies out there. 

Disappointed with the news, the girls tried a different subdivision; however, their attempts proved futile. The three girls were only able to sell two boxes that afternoon. Earning 16 percent of their total sales, the girls have a lot of boxes to sell before they will see a cruise ship together. That being said, the girls have two weeks to do their selling and not many can resist the lures of Girl Scout Cookies. 

See a list of the cookies and their nutrition facts.