By, DYLAN WHITELY, Student Reporter
Mandy Whitely, a Scout leader for one of the Alva Girl Scout troops, said cookie sales help pay for girls’ patches, uniforms, supplies and registration fees for events.
There are four local Girl Scout troops that make up Service Unit 629 of the Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma.
The troops in Alva meet weekly. The service unit includes girls from Alva, Waynoka and Cherokee.
It has 25 adult volunteers.
Whitely said cookie sales help girls get out of their comfort zones and improve their skills.
“It teaches the girls entrepreneurship,” she said. “It teaches the girls leadership. It teaches the girls public speaking. They have to get over those inherent fears that we all have, especially little ones.”
Whitely encourages people to buy cookies from Girl Scouts, especially when Scouts are selling their goods at local establishments. She asks those who are not interested in buying cookies, however, to decline politely.
The top three cookie flavors stay the same year after year, Whitely said.
Thin Mints are the No. 1 seller. Samoas are the second-best seller, and Tagalongs are the third best.
She said her personal favorite flavor has always been Tagalongs, with her love for them spanning back all the way to when she was a Girl Scout. Each girl has her own website that people can buy cookies from.
Their websites tell a little about the girls and why they’re selling the cookies, whether that be for an upcoming project or something else. Besides the girl’s individual websites, they will also have booths set up around Alva to sell cookies. They will set up their booths starting Valentine’s Day weekend, and they will be set up every weekend until March 21.
They will have a booth set up at Walmart, with booths possibly being set up at Atwoods, Alva’s Market and Shepherd’s as well.
The S’more’s and the Toffee-tastic cookies cost $6 per box, and every other kind of cookie flavor costs $5 per box.
Editor’s Note: Mandy Whitely is a distant cousin of reporter Dylan Whitely.