Family boasts three generations of Girl Scouts

From sandwich creams to shortbread to fat-free indulgences, one local family boasts three generations of eager Girl Scout cookie saleswomen.

Barbara Kempster of Jackson was a Girl Scout for only a year when she was in the eighth grade. Cookies sold for 50 cents a box, and the choice was limited to two flavors: chocolate sandwich cookies and Scot Teas, a shortbread cookie that later became known as Trefoils, now called Shortbread.

She was a Scout only for a year because the leader left the troop, but once she had her own three daughters, she helped get Scouting started in 1978 in the Kansas community where she lived, and has been involved ever since, mostly at the council level. Now two granddaughters have joined the family cookie sales team.

Today two-thirds of the price of each box of cookies goes directly to Girl Scout troops. A portion of the profit is distributed directly to the troop, where the girls decide how it will be spent, according to Laura Hinkebein of the Otahki Council. Another portion is set aside to provide financial assistance for girls whose families can't afford to pay for their Scouting experience. When Kempster sold cookies for 50 cents a box, Scouts got a 2-cent profit.

Denise Bell of rural Jackson, one of Kempster's daughters, recalls selling a choice of five flavors for $1.75 a box. She and sister Laura Mitchell of Virginia Beach, Va., and Julie Twitchell, who lives in the Ozarks, are still involved in Scouting. Bell's daughter Delaney, 7, and Mitchell's daughter, Hayley, 13, are carrying on the tradition.

"We have over 100 years combined experience in our immediate family," Bell said.

Bell's favorite cookie is the Thin Mint. Mitchell, visiting for the holiday, disagrees.

"Samoas, hands down," she said. "I'm not a Thin Mint girl."

New flavor

When local sales begin Jan. 12, selections will include Thin Mints, Shortbread, Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Peanut Butter Patties, Reduced-Fat Cartwheels, Thanks-a-Lots and a new flavor, Lemonades. All cookies this year will be made without trans fats, known to raise "bad" cholesterol levels.

More than just the cookies have changed over the years. Girl Scouts have evolved. Girls learn self-defense, anger management and conflict resolution along with other life-affirming skills.

Mitchell said she stresses community service to her troop. Through her career with the USO, she encourages her girls to volunteer to help families of men and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Older Girl Scout traditions remain: Both Bell and Mitchell lead their troops to day camps, horseback riding and such traditional Girl Scout outdoor cooking delicacies as boiling an egg in a paper cup, making biscuits on a stick and making an oven from a box and baking a cake.

"My mom being a Girl Scout leader, we love to go camping," Mitchell said. "It was fun. We're outdoors people. I make sure with my girls we do everything outside."

Being in Girl Scouts and selling cookies taught Bell, who works for Drury Inns, how to persevere.

"I learned don't give up, keep a smile on your face and be positive and most people will respond to that," she said.

Mitchell said she learned how to set goals for herself and stay focused.

Kempster, a clerk at Orthopaedic Associates, said she learned most of her lessons as a leader, and later at the council level where she was vice president for six years. The organization has been criticized for taking money that the girls worked for selling cookies.

"It's going to the girls anyway," she said. "You have to have the council property, programs, field reps. I saw that side of it."

According to Hinkebein, the No. 1 reason people buy the cookies is to support helping young girls through Scouting.

"People see Girl Scout cookies and immediately recognize them," Bell said. "You don't get too many people refusing to buy Girl Scout cookies."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160