Girl Scouts of Connecticut

CT Girl Scouts Find Innovative Ways to Sell Cookies During COVID-19 Crisis

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It’s that sweet time of year again: Girl Scout cookies are for sale.

Connecticut troop members are finding innovate ways to make their pitches both online and in person, with safety precautions of course, as the pandemic continues.

“It’s harder to make cookie sales right now because lots of people don’t want to be in contact with COVID,” said East Hartford girl scout Melody Valdes.

The 13-year-old uses social media and her rapping skills to serve up a sale.

“I was thinking of a cool way I could advertise my cookie sales," Valdes said.

She said the song took her about two hours to write.

Valdes and her troop leader mother hope people remember that cookie purchases help their groups do good work in the community, like the project she's working on to inspire kids to read more.

“Nowadays especially during this pandemic people have just been on their phones and on social media and they haven’t really been paying attention to important things like books," Valdes said.

With lots of folks working from home, setting up shop outside a local businesses may not be the smartest plan and going door-to-door isn't the safest plan during a pandemic, but online sales are easy enough for this six-year-old entrepreneur.

“I go on video chat with friends and family and I video chat with them and ask them what kind of cookies they would like,” said daisy girl scout Melina Brady from Somers.

“And our troop does so many fun things and helps our community and it's great learning for her to get into that, as she grows,” her mother Christi Brady said.

This year, some troops are even learning about supply and demand, as the newest “Adventurefuls” cookie faces supply shortage stress. But, Girl Scouts of CT CEO Diana Mahoney said the popular treat is still for sale here, as another bakery steps up to help with the demand.

Yet another life lesson for these little ladies.

“It’s all real life, good lessons to learn of how to run a business, how to set a goal, and things are going to change, how to be dynamic, how do we overcome it,” said Mahoney.  

Making the best of any situation, music rapper Valdes’ ears, who says she’s not only learned business skills and money management from her time selling cookies with the Girl Scouts, but spreading kindness, too.

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