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Maggie Kleve, a first-grader and first-year Girl Scout, picked a significant year to join Holyoke Troop 83070 as the Girl Scout organization celebrates 100 years of cookie sales. —Johnson Publications photo

100 years of Girl Scout cookies is something to celebrate

    Thin Mint. Samoa. Tagalong. Bliss. It’s that time of year again, and this year there’s even more to celebrate, as 2017 marks 100 years of Girl Scout cookie sales.
    It all started in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1917, when the Mistletoe troop decided to sell cookies they baked at home as a fundraiser. (At the time, Girl Scouts as an organization was just 5 years old, established in 1912.)
    Within a few years, the idea snowballed into a well-loved standard for Girl Scouts nationwide, teaching the five skills of goal-setting, decision-making, money management, people skills and business ethics.
    “We still sell the original shortbread cookie,” said Holyoke Girl Scout troop leader Lori Kramer, referring to the shortbread Trefoil cookie.
    In the early years of cookie sales, girls baked their own cookies to sell, helped along by a special 1922 Girl Scout sugar cookie recipe published in The American Girl magazine along with a business plan for the fundraiser.
    The cookie business was booming even in the 1920s, with the likes of even Babe Ruth promoting the Million Cookie Drive in 1924.
    Trefoils were the first commercially baked Girl Scout cookie in 1936, when demand for cookies outpaced the troops’ baking capabilities. Girl Scouts purchased their very own commercial cookie stamp in the trefoil shape with the Girl Scout emblem.
    Over time, more cookie flavors were concocted for commercial sales, including the Cooky-Mint, the mint-chocolate predecessor to the Thin Mint, in 1939.
    Kramer said one of the most common questions they receive is what the cookie money is used for. “In our community, we’ve found there’s a need to keep our activities as low-cost as possible, so most of the money supports the Girl Scout troop,” she said, naming uniforms, patches, activities and trips as the major expenses funded.
    Holyoke’s Troop 83070 has 15 members that range in grade level from kindergarten to the eighth grade. They learn leadership skills, the importance of community involvement and any number of other skills ranging from screenwriting to first aid.
    “There’s always more stuff they can do and learn as a group,” said Kramer. Scouts can even create their own badge based on a chosen skill or activity, sending in their five steps to reach a stated goal in order to receive the special badge in the mail.
    In honor of reaching the 100-year mark for cookie sales, troops have a new cookie on the sales sheet — the S’mores cookie, combining two iconic Girl Scout traditions into one, cookie sales and s’mores. (Girl Scouts first published a recipe for the campfire treat in a 1925 issue of Girl Scout Leader.)
    However, it’s a little late to ask for a box of the special anniversary cookie, according to Kramer. “We ran out in the first week, and now we can’t get any more!” she said. To avoid excess inventory, leaders had to guess how many boxes of each type of cookie they would sell to order ahead of time, and the commercial bakery based amounts made off the estimates.
    “I think everyone was being overly cautious in ordering,” Kramer explained.
    Still, there are plenty of other favorite flavors to support the local troop through, carrying on a century-old, delicious tradition.

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