Smart cookies: FreeLake Girl Scouts learn life skills one box at a time
Nora Hecht, 10, center, gives change back to a customer while she and other Girl Scouts sell cookies at Baldie's Craft Pizzeria in Lakeville, Friday, Jan. 9. Photos by Sam Tucker
From left: Scouts Nora and Ella Hecht, 8, and Reagan Jacome, 10, keep the sales rolling. All of the funds the scouts raise through their cookie sales funds everything their troops get up to.
Reagan Jacome keeps the cash box secure.
The scouts sold about 100 boxes by the end of the night.
Nora shows her collection of patches. She began to run out of room, so she sewed on ribbons to hold more patches.
From left: Nora, Ella and Reagan share their sales tips. They said big smiles always help with closing the cookie-deal.
Nora Hecht, 10, center, gives change back to a customer while she and other Girl Scouts sell cookies at Baldie's Craft Pizzeria in Lakeville, Friday, Jan. 9. Photos by Sam Tucker
From left: Scouts Nora and Ella Hecht, 8, and Reagan Jacome, 10, keep the sales rolling. All of the funds the scouts raise through their cookie sales funds everything their troops get up to.
Reagan Jacome keeps the cash box secure.
The scouts sold about 100 boxes by the end of the night.
Nora shows her collection of patches. She began to run out of room, so she sewed on ribbons to hold more patches.
From left: Nora, Ella and Reagan share their sales tips. They said big smiles always help with closing the cookie-deal.
LAKEVILLE — The Girl Scout Cookie season is in full swing, and three scouts from FreeLake troops have big goals for the year.
Bundled up and standing steadfast at a table with cookie boxes spread across it, scouts Nora and Ella Hecht and Reagan Jacome said they pick up life-skills and have fun during their routine cookie selling days.
Last week, the three posted up with their parent-leaders in front of Baldie’s Craft Pizzeria in Lakeville, taking part in the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world.
Nora, 10, a Junior rank scout, said they like coming to the pizzeria on Fridays since there’s plenty of potential customers.
“We actually get a lot of sales here on Friday,” she said.
The scouts sell cookie boxes for $6, and the raised funds pay for everything the scouts get up to as a troop — including all their patches, membership dues and adventures. The troops also use leftover funds for community projects and programs.
When the scouts aren’t selling cookies, the community projects keep them busy. They give turkeys to area food banks over Thanksgiving, shop for Christmas toys for families in need and complete conservation projects like the recently-built butterfly boxes and “seed bombs” for the endangered Monarch Butterfly.
The seed bombs are small clay balls with milkweed plant seeds that are used to grow more of the endangered butterfly’s food of choice. The scouts also add in a unique ingredient.
“We also put glitter in [the seed bombs] to make the butterflies feel special,” Ella, 8, a Brownie Scout and Nora’s sister, said.
Later this year, the scouts plan to construct water-safety stations at Clear Pond Park and Hathaway Park.
“Were trying to make sure no one gets injured in the water. So, we're gonna make a safety station, and it's gonna have a bunch of stuff in Freetown and Lakeville,” Reagan, 10, a Junior rank scout, said.
The three said customers in Lakeville and Freetown like to buy the Thin Mint and Caramel Delight cookies the most. Nora said she would recommend the Trefoils cookies since, “they're nice and plain for people.’
The scouts all hope to sell more than 500 boxes. If they do, they win a free ticket to Canobie Lake Park, a rollercoaster and amusement park in New Hampshire — where scouts’ achievements are also recognized at a ceremony.
The cookie selling season ends in March, and the scouts use any leftover cookie boxes in their Caring Cookie Caravan program. The program has scouts deliver free cookie trays to area fire and police departments and Councils on Aging.
All in all, Michelle Hecht, Nora and Ella’s mother, said the simple act of selling cookies equips scouts with life skills.
“It's a great experience for them. It helps with their math skills, and certainly helps with their people skills and building confidence,” Hecht said, who is the troop 76200 Leader and Board Member of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.
By the end of the night on Friday — along with the other shifts of scouts who ran the booth earlier in the evening — Ella, Nora and Reagan helped sell about 100 boxes. Their trick to keep sales rolling in boils down big smiles and one question, Ella said.
“Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?” she said.
To find out when scouts are selling cookies in town, visit the Girl Scout Cookie tracker page on the Girl Scouts of America website. Additionally, the cookie booth schedule is posted every Thursday for the coming weekend on the Freetown and Lakeville town Facebook pages.
