The following is a news release from the Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains:
Thin Mint lovers can celebrate today’s announcement by Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains (GS-TOP) that local Girl Scouts will be allowed to sell cookies for one additional week. Cookie season was set to end February 25, but has now been extended through March 4, 2018, providing the girls with one additional weekend to accomplish their cookie-selling goals.
“Each year our girls look forward to the one opportunity when they sell cookies to raise troop funds,” said Becky Burton, CEO of Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains. “We all realize how brutal the flu season has been, impacting many of our families and preventing them from participating.” According to federal officials, this is the worst flu season since 2009-10 when a swine flu outbreak swept across Texas and the U.S. “And for our girls who managed to avoid the flu, the extreme weather has kept them from their usual strategies of selling at booths or door-to-door,” she added.
“Flu has been flying through the schools, affecting entire families,” noted Christi Baker, Girl Scout Product Coordinator in Lubbock. “We had so many troops who had scheduled booths, but then had to give them up due to illness. On top of that, girls and parents were also forced to cancel booths due to the frigid temperatures and extreme wind chill we’ve experienced,” she added. “Our girls are thrilled with the extended deadline,” said Alicia Garey, who leads Troop 6464 with 22 girls. “About half of our girls came down with the flu,” she said. “They were so disappointed that they couldn’t sell during the first weeks of the cookie season. The new March 4th deadline gives them a chance to make up for those lost opportunities.”
The annual Girl Scout cookie sale is an American tradition with a long history. Girl Scouts have been selling cookies as a way to finance troop activities since 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, baked cookies and sold them in its high school cafeteria as a service project. All net revenue raised by cookies sold – 100 percent of it – stays with the local council and troops. Girls use money earned from their cookie business to fund community service projects and learning experiences, such as field trips and travel opportunities. Nearly 1 million Girl Scouts nationwide participate in the Girl Scout Cookies Program each year.
The Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains Council covers 81 counties. With its headquarters in Fort Worth, the council also has offices in Lubbock, Amarillo, Plainview, Wichita Falls, Abilene and Southlake.
(News release from the Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains)
