Girl Scout Cookies

My daughter is a Brownie. This is her first year to sell cookies. Her goal, set by her leader, was to sell 20 boxes for her troop to go camping next year. We met our goal plus 6 more boxes and quit. I think with so many people selling so many things and in so many different ways these days, I really didn't want my own daughter to be capitalizing on our own friends and family by selling as many boxes as she could to as many people as she could. Some of the girls went ahead and sold a lot of cookies.

I am also skeptical about where the money goes. I remember 25 years ago when I was a Blue Bird selling a bunch of cookies. I don't think my Blue Bird troop ever saw any of the money I raised. Maybe it was because of the troop I was in. After all, I was the Camp Fire girl that never actually went camping and neither did the rest of the group. (I think we made one weekend trip to a very large cabin with a large dining area near by and some woods for the less fortunate to get lost in. It would be hard to define it as camping though.) But maybe the money raised was swallowed up in the organizational abyss. That seems likely too.

I guess I just don't want to raise more money than is needed, because I think it will be swallowed by the organaization (also, the ingredients are terrible for you... yuck). I recall many years ago hearing that the top Girl Scout person made over $200,000. That is a lot of money for a nonprofit gig, and that was a long time ago too. I think she desired CEO status.

I don't know what I am going to do yet when my daughter gets old enough to go off on her own and sell like crazy. She was ready to this year, but I was able to convince her that reaching her goal plus just a little more was plenty enough for the first time.