By Alison Bailin Batz

For six weeks each year, Girl Scouts in Arizona participate in the Girl Scout Cookie Program. From Jan. 21 – Mar. 3, more than 12,000 girls in central and northern Arizona will be walking around neighborhoods and boothing in front of local stores learning entrepreneurial skills while selling delicious cookies. Not only is every cookie sale a teachable moment, but because all proceeds stay local, girls are able to enjoy summer camp, robotics programs, field trips and even adventures out of state in a safe environment. Sales also have the potential to impact the community as troops reinvest their proceeds with service projects.

Why Girl Scouts
Girls face unique challenges, and they need support from the very beginning to build the resilience and confidence to overcome peer and media pressure. Research shows that single-gender environments build connectedness, competence and confidence in girls. While most schools and many extracurricular programs are now co-ed, Girl Scouts is one of the few single-gender organizations accessible to all girls and young women.
The inclusive, girl-led, all-female environment of a Girl Scout troop creates a safe space in which girls can try new things, develop a range of skills, take on leadership roles, and feel comfortable failing, dusting themselves off, and trying again.

Your Local Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine Council (GSACPC) started in 1936, and over the past 80-plus years has grown to serve more than 21,000 girls grades K-12 in over 90 communities across central and northern Arizona.

In 2018, GSACPC completed its five-year, $18 million Campaign for Girls in Arizona. Through the campaign, the Girl Scouts not only built and opened The Bob & Renee Parsons Leadership Center for Girls & Women at Camp South Mountain, an ADA-accessible year-round urban program center with camp appeal, but now own it debt free. The center exponentially increased GSACPC’s capacity to serve more girls with relevant programming, from aquatics to STEM, all year long.

Show Your Support
As in previous years, GSACPC is proud to partner with Fry’s, Food City, Bashas’ and Safeway, each of whom will offer local troops the opportunity to sell Girl Scout Cookies during cookie season. To find a booth at your local grocery store (and other retailers) visit girlscoutsaz.org/cookiefinder.

In addition, for the sixth year in a row, chefs at more than two dozen restaurants across the Valley and Flagstaff will go head-to-head to create a winning dessert using one of the Girl Scout Cookie flavors. The new creations will be sold in their restaurants Feb. 1-28, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the local girls. Here’s which cookie each of the local participants – those located in the Northeast Valley in your own backyard – got assigned:
• The Thumb: Trefoils
• Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale Troon North: Samoas
• PNPK Craft Slider + Wine Bar: Do-Si-Do
• Lovecraft: Thin Mint
• Ocean Prime: Thin Mint
• ZuZu at Hotel Valley Ho: Samoas
• Rusconi’s American Kitchen: Samoas
• The Herb Box: Savannah Smiles
• Babbo: Samoas
• 32 Shea: Thin Mint
• Aioli Burger: Samoas
• Original Gravity: Savannah Smiles
• Phoenix Ale Brewery Central Kitchen: Thin Mint

The chefs are putting their support behind the girls and want to inspire the community to do the same by not only coming in to taste their creations, but by buying an extra box or two to try their hand at making a dessert at home.

For more, visit www.girlscoutsaz.org.