Girl Scouts ready for cookie drive

The Thin Mints are back after a year's absence. Last year's hot seller, Animal Treasures, return, and Friendship Circles will debut on the Girl Scouts cookie sales list for 2002.

The Friendship Circles have been designed to celebrate the 90th birthday of Girl Scouting. The cookies are made by sandwiching a chocolate filling between two crisp, vanilla cookies embossed with the word "Friend" in one of 18 languages."

Friendship cookies will be available through the Girl Scouts of Otahki Council Friday when sales begin at 3 p.m.

All the perennial favorites will be available: Thin Mints, Caramel DeLites, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Shortbread, Peanut Butter Patties, Reduced Fat Lemon Pastry Cremes and Animal Treasures.

Helps with costs

Girls are the ultimate beneficiaries of all cookie-sale proceeds, said Laura Hinkebein of the Otahki Girl Scouts Council.

Cookie-sales revenue helps fund programs and camp costs, said Hinkebein. "Order-taking also provides training skills for the girls in handling money, planning projects, budgeting funds and networking," she said.

A portion of the funds raised through cookie sales goes to Scout troops, and the members decide how to spend it, said Hinkebein.

The co-chairmen for the council's cookie sales are Avon Crocker of Cape Girardeau and Betsy Ferguson of Patton, Mo.

One example of the way cookie sales benefit girls is the After School Girls Club. The program, now in its second year, operates as a branch of the Girl Scouts of Otahki Council and is designed for girls who may otherwise not be able to become a part of the Girl Scouts group.

"We meet twice a month after school," said Karen Redfearn, program director for Otahki Council.

The council has opened 11 sites for the program, six in schools in Cape Girardeau.

"We have a total of about 250 girls in the program," said Redfearn. The after-school curriculum provides girls with opportunities to become aware of the importance of self-reliance, social skills, decision-making, teamwork and leadership while emphasizing conflict resolution and violence-intervention skills.

Pave the Way project

A special Pave the Way project included in the program allows girls to recognize negative situations and lessen their chances of becoming a perpetrator or victim of violence, said Redfearn.

The program is funded by a matching grant from Girls Scouts of the U.S.A.

The After School Girls Club established some goals Tuesday.

The Schultz Group of After School Girls Club discussed cookie sales.

"We talked about setting a goal for cookie sales," said Brianna Egbuke, one of the students.

"We wanted to figure out how many boxes we have to sell to plan a trip for the group." added Rashanda McIntyre.

With Redfearn heading the discussion, most of the dozen girls in attendance added comments concerning cookie sales and where to and how to sell them.

"We have about 25 members of the group," said Redfearn. "This was the first meeting of the new year, and the attendance was down some."

rowen @semissourian.com

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