Slay It Forward

While they’re especially known for selling baked goods outside grocery stores during a brief six to eight week Girl Scout Cookie season, the coronavirus pandemic has once again changed a few plans.

Girl Scouts of the USA has suspended in-person activities and events, including Girl Scout Cookie booths, for safety precautions. However, the youth organization found a way to not only continue their delicious legacy, but also spread the joy to first responders, volunteers, and local causes.

Consumers now have the option to buy cookies online through their Girl Scouts Cookie Care or donate cookies to communities in need. Current trends show that a little more than one out of every ten packages sold are being donated, Valerie Geiss, a Girl Scouts spokesperson.

“For 108 years, Girl Scouts has been there in times of crisis and turmoil,” Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Sylvia Acevedo said in a news release. “And today we are stepping forward with new initiatives to help girls, their families, and consumers connect, explore, find comfort, and take action.”

Girl Scout troops across the country have been donating cookies to nurses at local hospitals, urgent care clinics, and food banks. So far, over 60,000 boxes of cookies have been donated, with most of the cookies going to the Food Bank for New York City to be distributed in grocery packages for healthcare workers and their families.

Since then, generation after generation of Girl Scouts have crushed gender expectations and redefined gender roles by getting involved in various activities ranging from sports and studying foreign languages to learning how to code and starting a business.

But the true mission of Girl Scouts is rooted in something even deeper than gender equality and women’s rights: it’s about helping those in need.

“Whether it was in the first World War or making sure that clothing and supplies got to the people that needed it, whether it was during the suffrage movement, whether it was in World War II, Girl Scouts have always figured out, how can we help others in need? How do we make the world a better place?”

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Hey SLAYER! I’ve started a new series of posts called SLAY IT FORWARD. Each post is a submission from you of an act of kindness you have received or have witnessed that has inspired you. Let’s remind each other what’s important during this time and spread kindness… SLAY IT FORWARD.

To submit your own SLAY IT FORWARD story email me at carrie@stateofslay.com