Tim Hull browses Girl Scout cookies Friday at Ace’s Pizza. Selling the cookies were, from left, Grace Vieira, 9, Faith Vieira, 6, Isla Smith, 9, Julia Bancroft, 10, and Harper Witham, 9. The Girl Scouts will be selling cookies Sunday at East Ferry Deli. PHOTO BY ANDREA VON HOHENLEITEN
Before the Super Bowl, a local Girl Scout decided to have a contest with customers using her two most popular cookies.
Lawn School sixth-grader Leslie O’Donnell, 12, encouraged her customers who were rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles to buy Thin Mints in their green boxes. Fans of the eventual champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, could show their support by buying Peanut Butter Patties in their red boxes. Most of her customers, she said, supported their team instead choosing their favorite flavor.
“Some people struggled,” her father, Sean O’Donnell, said.
“They bought them anyway,” Leslie added.
The annual sale of Girl Scout Cookies, which began in Jamestown in January, will continue through March. Leslie has been selling cookies alongside her mother, Katy, at Curiosity & Co. on Narragansett Avenue and across from the Jamestown Early Learning Center on North Road. There is no dedicated Girl Scout troop in Jamestown, so Leslie and two other local girls are part of North Kingstown Troop 625.
Morgan Dewese with a delivery of Girl Scout cookies. Her mother, Janet, is the local “cookie mom.”
Leslie, who has been in the Girl Scouts for seven years, has sold about 400 boxes of cookies in 2023. The best time of day, she says, is right after school. Across Rhode Island, Girl Scouts can be found selling their cookies outside of big-box stores, supermarkets, restaurants and liquor stores. Troop leader Melissa Twarog said popular spots for Troop 625 have included the Burger King and the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce, both on Post Road. Twarog said the sales are a way for the girls to create a goal for themselves, and it also allows them to interact with their community.
“Especially as the girls have gotten older, they’ve really taken ownership of it,” Twarog said. “I like how each one figures out their own way of how they want to sell.”
According to Leslie, who has lived on both coasts, the bestselling cookies vary by region. She said Thin Mints are popular everywhere, but Caramel deLites were more popular in California, whereas Peanut Butter Patties seem to be preferred in Rhode Island.
“Everyone enjoys the peanut butter ones rather than coconut,” she said about her Jamestown customers. Other cookies, like Peanut Butter Sandwiches, are not as popular as their other peanut butter counterpart, but the customers who like them are a dedicated group she said.
“Those are not the highest sellers, but it’s funny, because people who do enjoy them buy a lot of them,” Katy said.
The only flavor not offered by the Girl Scouts is the Raspberry Rally, which is new this year. It only was available for pre-ordering online, which started in December, but they sold out quickly.
Twarog said Troop 625 has almost met its goal for the year. Jamestown resident Janet Dewese, whose daughter Morgan is part of the troop, has acted as the “cookie mom.” Dewese orders the cookies, distributes them to the girls, tracks their sales, collects the money, enters data and submits the report to the Southeastern New England council.
Dewese said she set the goal of 2,000 packages. So far, they have sold 1,970 boxes. She said the program teaches the girls fiscal responsibility, accountability, planning and leadership.
“It really gives them a great opportunity to interact with a lot of individuals,” Dewese said.
The money raised by the cookies is used for troop activities like sailing, campouts and horseback riding. One year while Leslie was living in California, her troop sold enough boxes to take a trip to Disneyland.
“The cookie sales are a means to an end,” Sean O’Donnell said. “The end being the Girl Scouts take the profits they get and … do some fun activities that they wouldn’t have had a chance to do on their own.”
Each year, the girls of Troop 625 vote on how to spend their proceeds from the sale. This year, Twarog said, the girls decided they wanted to go to Launch Trampoline Park.
“It’s usually something fun that they want to do,” she said. “Especially as they’ve gotten older, because it’s a girl-led organization, we let them determine what the choices might be.”
Leslie also can put her experience selling cookies toward several Girl Scout badges, such as those for financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Girl Scouts who sell the most cookies can win prizes, and they can also earn “cookie dough,” which earns them a discount on summer camps.
While the sales are one of the most visible aspects of Girls Scouts, the troop does charitable work throughout the course of the year, like food drives and volunteering at animal shelters and retirement homes.
“There’s a lot of good stuff and fun stuff that the Girl Scouts do,” Sean O’Donnell said.
Some customers chose to buy boxes without taking the cookies home with them. Those cookies are put into a donation box, and the troop brings them to hospitals, police stations and firehouses. Cookies also have been sent to soldiers overseas.
A troop existed in Jamestown as recently as 2018. Since its disbandment, girls who are interested in the organization could join troops in nearby towns, like North Kingstown and Newport based on their grade level.
Troop 625 will have a booth set up Feb. 26 at East Ferry Deli. This will be the first time they will sell together as a group, opposed to individually, in Jamestown this year.
“The girls just have fun doing it,” Twarog said.
