Cookie Sales Still Primary Financial Provider For Girl Scouts

By Heather van Blokland
Published: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 4:51pm
Updated: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 - 10:45pm
Sky Schaudt/KJZZ
Boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

Girl Scout cookie season is underway in Arizona, and for many, that means greetings by scouts and cookie boxes at the front of the grocery store. But for troop members, cookie sales mean generating enough money to pay for programs the same way they have for over 100 years. 

Just 5% of CEOs in the S&P 500 are women. That’s according to a year-end report from the Girl Scouts Research Institute that measured female business and leadership growth opportunities. Heather Thornton is with the Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine Council. She said Girl Scout cookie sales each spring pay for the entrepreneurial programs. 

“They were doing things back then, you know, going canning and horseback riding, and not the side saddle — things that were not necessarily looked kindly on women back then. And so this whole idea of this financial independence gives you more authority or ability to make your decisions,” she said.       

The Arizona Cactus-Pine Council covers the Phoenix area and parts of the Navajo Nation, the border and military property. The area is on pace to sell 3 million boxes of cookies this season. 

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