Celebrating one hundred years of Girl Scouts selling cookies (1917-2017)
I’ve been writing about Girl Scouts and their cookies for several years now, but I’m publishing my book Thin Mint Memories in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first recorded cookie sale. As I explain in Chapter 2, “It All Began with a Bake Sale”:
One hundred years later, it’s impossible to know which group of Girl Scouts first came up with the idea of selling cookies as a means to fund troop activities….The first recorded cookie sale in Girl Scout history took place in a small town in Oklahoma. Although no one is alive now who bought cookies at that historic Muskogee, Oklahoma, high school bake sale in 1917, the simple sugar cookies baked by the Mistletoe Troop, only months after they’d received their troop charter, are now listed on official Girl Scout documents as the start of the Girl Scouts selling cookies. This makes that historic bake sale the predecessor of one of the most successful entrepreneurial ventures in the United States.
Julie Carlson, Product Sales Manager for Girls Scouts of America, explains that each year’s cookie sales have a theme. “This year our theme is ‘Built by Girls’ to commemorate 100 years of Girl Scouts selling cookies.”
Check out the Girl Scout’s blog post Girl Scouts Fuel a Century of Adventure for Girls for an informative and fun timeline of Girl Scout cookie history.
