Girl Scout juniors deliver the goods during pandemic
Smiles, and cookies, are finding their way to deserving community “heroes” during the coronavir us pandemic, thanks to a local Girl Scout Juniors troop.
Boulder County Girl Scout Junior Troop #76907 of Boulder County created Project Encour
AGEMINT to safely deliver cookies to traditional customers and collect donated cookies for essential workers amid the pandemic.
The troop decided not to conduct its traditional in-person cookie sales. Instead, its members thought of a way to safely sell cookies and donate them to workers and organizations impacted by COVID-19.
“We thought perhaps people would donate cookies that we could pass on to these Hometown Heroes, and we decided to make that our main emphasis,” Jamie Buck, troop leader of #76907, said.
Every year, Girl Scout troops select one or more
Hometown Heroes in their community to receive donated cookies. This year, the troop chose local health care workers, food banks, funeral homes and COVID-19 testing labs.
“Just thinking about the health care workers or the people facing food insecurity, it’s devastating
to think about how much they have to risk and how much they may have lost, so we thought, if we can do something to help them out, that would be a nice thing to do,” Buck said.
Pearce Lembitz, a Girl Scout Junior, believes that donating cookies can “bring a smile to their face to know that they are ver y appreciated for what they’re doing.”
Another aspect of Project Encouragemint swaps out the traditional booth cookie sales for contactless deliver y cookie sales.
Contactless porch deliveries are offered for customers who want to buy cookies but have not been asked by a neighbor or a friend or prefer less in-person contact, Buck explained.
Troop #76907 has partnered with other local troops and aims to deliver 1,000 donated packages to Hometown Heroes before their deadline of March 5, the last day for customers to place orders. Currently, they are at around the 400 packages mark, Pearce said.
After their cookie sales are complete, the money received will go towards funding their troop goals and adventures and will also be used to “donate a computer to a kid who needs one for school and life,” Pearce said.
Despite this year being a challenging one for Girl Scout troop #76907 during the pandemic, the girls have demonstrated their hard work and abilities by designing their website for Project Encouragemint, according to Pearce.
“I really enjoyed figuring out the way that I can still get cookies to people, and I’ve also learned a bunch of different marketing skills like advertising and website design and being ver y creative,” Pearce said.
Pearce’s mother is also ver y pleased with the troop for their work during tough times.
“I am immensely proud of this troop for developing and designing this project and reaching out to other troops in the area and for setting such a high goal,” Terrie Clark said.
Those interested in helping Girl Scout Troop #76907 reach their goal by donating or ordering cookies can go to bit.ly/ 3BLCB6L.