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(Sarah Curtis)
The pandemic has disrupted many traditions, including Girl Scout Cookie season, but it did not stop top cookie seller Sarah Curtis from selling more than 1,500 cookies this season.
Sarah has been a Girl Scout since she was in the 2nd grade and has been a top seller nationally for several years.
This year Sarah did not reach her personal best of 3,100 cookies, but she did make it to 1,500, which is impressive given that in-person selling opportunities were not available at the start of cookie season. In addition to selling cookies, Sarah usually collects money at the in-person booth for various charities.
This year her troop donated 60 boxes to welcome the students back to their first day of in-person learning at ICEF Inglewood Charter.
The unusual season impacted Girl Scouts at all levels on the cookie-selling spectrum. Leila, who’s in the Brownie level of Girl Scouts, sold about half of her last year’s sales. Her mom, Jennifer Turgeon, said the pandemic definitely impacted their troop as well as Leila’s sales.
“For the troop, the girls couldn’t set up their usual spots outside stores, and easy sales came from me bringing cookies into my office and Super Bowl parties,” Turgeon said. “I’ve been working remotely and didn’t want to ask colleagues to buy cookies online where they would have to pay shipping fees. This year we didn’t have a Super Bowl gathering.”
Early in the season, Girl Scouts didn’t allow “lemonade” stands but changed their position about one month into the season.
“They imposed regulations that were tough to meet, and we decided not to participate,” Turgeon said. “Since 2020 crept into 2021, I felt it was best to limit our customers to family and friends who live in our neighborhood and call it a season.”
Selling cookies teaches Girl Scouts valuable entrepreneurial and business skills. A silver lining of this season for Sarah is that next year she is looking forward to mentoring younger girls because she realized that is her favorite part of cookie season.
