The Brodhead Independent
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Wednesday, March 9, 2016
SHOPPING NEWS
Girl Scouts reap personal benefits in benefit sale By Tony Ends Editor and Staff Writer
ALBANY — Watching a 5th-grader sell the signature cookies we all know help the Girl Scout, shows benefits extending way beyond the sale. Take Skye McDermott, for instance. She’s been hard at it again this year, pitching Girl Scout Cookies from tables set up in store foyers and going door-to-door. She looks straight into your eyes. She talks freely, maturely. She thinks clearly out loud, explaining all the options, answering questions before
there’s even time to think of them. “It teaches them math skills, how to be assertive, changing money, how to be comfortable selling,” observed Skye’s mom and Troop Leader, Renee McDermott, last Friday night at Albany Mini Mart. “I’ve watched how they’ve grown from selling cookies. We have a young girl who didn’t think she could even sell 50 boxes, and now she’s sold more than 400 of them. The girls get excited to sell; they like selling cookies,” Renee said, even as her daughter Skye proves her point in yet
another transaction. Girl Scouts from Albany, Evansville and Brodhead, in three troops Renee leads, have taken on a big cookie benefit sales goal here this year – 13,000 boxes. That’s 1,547 cases of cookies, and 2,000 more boxes than last year. When the huge palettes of cases arrived at Albany Lions Club, it took 7 hours to sort all the boxes by troop orders and table sales. Albany Lions Club lets the local troops of 9 girls across 4 grades in school store their cookies in their building. Other businesses that let
the troops based in Albany sell from their stores include Piggly Wiggly in Evansville, WalMart in Monroe, Lions Quick Mart and Festival Foods in Janesville, Pick and Save stores in Monroe and Janesville. “The girls work in shifts,” Renee said, “and we divide up the boxes sold between them across the shifts, so all achieve the same sales. Some girls have slower times of store sales, and others have busy times. “Parents are required to be with them when they’re selling; we have really good par-
Dan McDermott unpacks more Girl Scout cookies for his daughter Skye to sell at Albany Mini Mart last Friday. Volunteering is a requirement of parents who want to sign their daughters up for troop participation. Tony Ends photos
Sgt. James Placek of Albany Police Department buys cookies from Skye McDermott last Friday at Albany Mini-Mart. Skye’s mother and troop leader Renee McDermott looks on.
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ent volunteer involvement in our troops,” she said. The bulk of the Albany-based troops, however, are sold doorto-door. “My dad did it with me every night,” said Skye, who sold 2,100 boxes of cookies last year, and is halfway to selling that many again this cookie season. Customers can have cookies they buy sent overseas to those serving in the military or have them donated to a local food pantry. Local Girl Scouts this year plan to use their share of proceeds from selling cookies for a camping trip, possibly also a trip to Washington, D.C. Activities and projects the Girl Scouts undertake aren’t confined to cookie sales, by any means. “We plant flowers in Albany and Evansville. We learned about solar power and built a solar bird bath for Albany’s Prairie Garden. We also made a rain barrel for watering flowers in both Albany and Evansville,” Skye said. Girl Scouts locally are earning their last Journey badges in a project that teaches them to break down stereotypes. They are making skits to perform at the end of the year in a ceremony in June. The troops based in Albany meet at Hilltop Community Church on North Jackson every other Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. You can reach the troop leader at reneegirlsouts@tds. net or 862-3550. More girls are welcome. “We have a law,” Skye said, “We have to be a sister to every Girl Scout,” showing another benefit from joining Girl Scouts.
Local Tornado Spotter Classes to be held in Green County MONROE — Green County Emergency Management has announced that two local tornado spotters’ classes will be held soon. On Wednesday, March 16th at 12:30 p.m., a Basic Tornado Spotter Class will be held at the Monroe Fire Station #1601 W. 17th Street. At 6:30 p.m., another basic spotter class will be held at the Blanchardville Fire Department, 208 Mason Street. These free classes run about two hours and are open to all first responders, as well as the general public. The emphasis this year, along with how to correctly identify a tornado, will be how to communicate to the National Weather Service (NWS) and provide them information on what you are seeing. The NWS can get a better idea of what is happening at your location and our communities. Graduates of this course are not expected to become storm chasers unless they intend to
pursue additional training to do so. Due to limited seating, we are asking that interested parties pre-register for the class by contacting Green County Emergency Management at 608-328-9470. Tim Halbach, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Milwaukee/Sullivan will be presenting the class. Additional Tornado Spotters’ Classes are also offered throughout Wisconsin. Check the National Weather Service Milwaukee/Sullivan website h t t p : / / w w w. c r h . n o a a . g o v / mkx, under “News Headlines” for dates and locations. Additional resources to help prepare for the storm season can be found at Green County Emergency Management’s website at www.greencountyem.com and on Facebook. Be sure to check these sites in April to enter our contest to win a weather radio!