NorCal

The Girl Scouts of the United States is divided into subsections called Girl Scout councils, with the Bay Area under the jurisdiction of the Girl Scouts of Northern California. The council is made of over 50,000 girls and 31,000 adult volunteers in 19 counties, with the Mission Peak Service Unit serving the cities of Fremont, Newark, and Union City. Beyond cookies and crafts, the organization offers pro grams focused on outdoors activities, STEM education, entrepre neurship, and community service. The organization’s Adventure Club program encourages girls toThe organization’s Adventure Club encourages girls to spend time outdoors through activi ties like backpacking and climbing, and they also offer STEM Activities for girls to explore science, technology, engineering, and math with a hands-on approach. “A major part of my troop is inspiring women in STEM, [for instance, by] pushing for women in STEM scholarships and selling extra boxes of cookies [to fund them],” Mission Peak District’s Troop 62618 Girl Scout Freshman Sanjana Srivatsa said. These programs help girls develop age-appropriate skills and knowledge, while having fun and making new friends.

Cookies

Girl Scouts Cookie season is typically from January to April, with different timings based on location. While prices of cookies may vary from each of the 111 Girl Scout regional councils, every cent is used by local Girl Scouts troops to host meetings and allow Girl Scouts opportunities to earn badges. “Selling cookies teaches [my troop] how to make money, manage an actual inventory, and run a business in a real-life sense that I appreciate and that would be hard for a school club or class to provide,” Srivatsa said. Not only are Girl Scouts able to practice budgeting, managing inventory, and marketing, but they’re also able to fundraise for more Girl Scout activities like camping. This year, the Girl Scouts of Northern California marks March 8 as the beginning of Girl Scouts Cookie season, selling each box at $6. Students can purchase boxes from any Girl Scout or dedicated booth. Customers who don’t know how to find a nearby Girl Scouts troop can use the Cookie Finder, a website created by the Girl Scouts organization to help locate nearby troops and cookie booths.