Sweet Spot! Oklahoma Girl Scout Sets Cookie Sales Record
Tuesday, March 25th, 2014March 25, 2014
Katie Francis, an 11-year-old Girl Scout from Oklahoma City, has smashed the national record for cookie sales by peddling 18,107 boxes of the tasty treats. The previous record–18,000–was set in 1985 by Elizabeth Brinton of Virginia. Thanks to her sales abilities, Katie, a sixth-grader at Hefner Middle School, also cinched a second consecutive title for most cookies sold in a state. And she’s not done. Katie broke the record on Sunday, March 23. But she aims to go higher yet. Because of the terrible weather this winter, cookie sales have been extended until March 30.
The secret of her success, Katie told the Oklahoman newspaper was devoting a lot of time and commitment to the sale and asking everyone she meets to buy at least one box. Katie’s troop will receive a share of the profits from the sales, which they plan to donate to breast cancer research.
Selling cookies to fund troop activities began in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1917, according the Girl Scouts of the USA website. Members of the Mistletoe Troop baked the cookies and sold them in their high school cafeteria as a service project. In July 1922, The American Girl magazine, published by Girl Scout national headquarters, included a cookie recipe that had been given to the 2,000 Girl Scouts in Chicago for a fund-raising project. The idea of cookie sales spread rapidly. In the 1920′s and 1930′s, the website relates, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country baked simple sugar cookies with their mothers. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door to door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.
Girl Scouts unpack a box of cookies for their annual cookie sale. Local Girl Scout councils in the United States conduct annual cookie drives to earn badges and raise funds for their own troops and groups. (AP Photo)
Nearly all of the cookies are sold door-to-door or at booths set up at train stations, malls, or other public sites, a selling technique pioneered by Elizabeth Brinton. This year, however, Girl Scout councils in Houston, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota have been testing the idea of selling cookies online and from mobile handheld devices.
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