Girl Scout Cookies Help Port Washington Troops Make A Difference

It's Girl Scout Cookie season, and in Port Washington, there are definite preferences. Topping the list? Thin Mints along with Samoas – a coconut cookie with chocolate. Next up, Lemon Chalet Cremes, followed by Tagalongs (featuring peanut butter topped with chocolate), Trefoils (shortbread) and Do-si-dos (oatmeal and peanut butter).

These cookies hit the market Jan. 8 and will be available through April 15, for $4 a box. But for the troops, the experience provides a whole lot more than the chance to sell cookies, noted Raleigh Brown, the cookie chair for the Girl Scouts in Port Washington

Sure, Port Washington Cadette Girl Scout Troops 441 and 427 enjoy selling cookies. But they also get to meet people in the community, learn good morals and even help military personnel overseas. 

Prizes and awards are given to individual girls and troops who sell the most cookies and participate in various community projects, according to Brown.

“The girls would like to sell at least 150 boxes each to help offset the cost of a big trip we would like to go on this year, possibly to Disney World or St. Louis,” Brown said. “The girls earn 60 cents per box sold."

Asked about local scouting, Brown said, "Girls usually start becoming a Girl Scout from kindergarten through 5th grade, but there are teen and adult Girl Scouts, like myself that become cookie chairs and cookie moms.”

Cookie Mom Kathi Sanft has volunteered her time for the last four years in Port Washington for troops 441 and 427. Sanft, whose 12-year-old daughter is a Girl Scout, feels the experience allows girls to learn strong life lessons, build community and help the world around them.

“The girls are rehearsing skits that will be performed at some time this year, and the troops conduct yearly food drives for a local food pantry at in Port Washington,” Sanft said. “A sponsorship opportunity is offered by the Girl Scouts called “Operation Cookie” and offers people to donate cookies to our servicemen and women in Iraq, Afghanistan and the surrounding areas.”

According to Brown, there are 35 troops in the Port Washington area with approximately 400 Girl Scouts. Brown said the girls sell cookies to neighbors and stores and to passersby at the Port Washington . Look for upcoming cookie sales on March 5 by from March 1 through April 15 by the LIRR March through April 15, and from now through April 15 by .

Parker Brown, Raleigh’s 12-year-old daughter who is in troop 427, said she likes helping others in the community and she has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten. Her 14-year-old sister Juliet, in troop 441, feels it’s fun to be part of the Girl Scouts.

“I want to stay in the Girl Scouts until I am 20 years old," Juliet Brown said. “I want to continue to help the community.”

Christina Candido is 14 years-old, and has been a Girl Scout for three years. She aims to increase cookie sales this year in hopes of winning for Troop 441 the silver award, the highest achievement for a Cadette.

“We get to do a lot of things in the community, such as the food drive and we might do a dog wash this year,” Candido said. “I would like to sell at least 100 boxes of cookies in 2011, maybe more.”

And in the process, Candido and the other scouts will also go a long way towards helping to make a difference while also forming lasting friendships.