What A Box Of Cookies Is Really Worth

Every spring the Girl Scouts are out selling their cookies to families around their neighborhood, going door to door dressed in their full uniform and with an order form tucked under an arm. These girls are raising money for their troop and activities they will do together, as well as the local Girl Scout camp and headquarters. They learn valuable life lessons including communication, organization, responsibility, and working toward a goal. They also hone skills that could prove beneficial in future employment in jobs that routinely involve salesmanship, marketing, or working with building or retaining clientele. At least that's how it used to be.

My girlfriend has a couple of young relatives who she supports with the purchase of several boxes of cookies, and I can't fault her for that practice. I appreciate the benefits a girl can receive from such a fundraiser because I was involved in a similar fundraising effort in the Boy Scouts when we sold popcorn. The difference is that Trail's End popcorn isn't worth the cost, while I think the Girl Scout cookies actually are. Ultimately you're making a donation to a Scouting organization, so the cost shouldn't much matter, but I feel that the Boy Scouts would have much more success if they provided a product that was actually worth buying.

In any event, the big issue that I have is that I have yet to see girls or boys making the effort to do door to door sales for nearly a decade (six of those nine years have been at a college campus, though). Indeed, the sales may be to relatives passed along by parents or aunts/uncles. What I believe accounts for most of the sales, though, is through the more egregious practices of setting an order form in a work lounge or erecting a folding table at the exit of a mall or supermarket. The reason I label these two tactics as egregious is because these are spearheaded by the adults, not the kids. Co-workers try to make people feel guilty about not making an order for the kids, and often the signs, sales tactics, and even the person making the sale behind a folding table bears little resemblance to what I would expect from a girl in elementary school. The primary goal of the fundraiser, raising funds, may be improved by having the parents take charge. But I contend that what I believe is a secondary goal, that of building a skill-set and esteem within a young girl (or boy, in the case of popcorn sales), is completely missed without the child doing the lion's share of the work.

Perhaps it is a sign that times are changing. Maybe parents do not feel comfortable letting their children go door to door to support their troop with a fundraiser. But I believe that the goals of Scouting are hindered when the goals of its fundraisers do not complement the Scouting movement itself. I would prefer to know that a girl sold 30 boxes for $100 toward her troop than 100 or 500 boxes were sold in her name but without her smiling face involved in any of them.