Girl Scouts smile, wave way to success

LYNN – Selling Girl Scout cookies has gone from a charming tradition to big business, and little girls are learning fast the ways of marketing.”You smile and wave, show them the cookies and look cute,” said Hailey Page, 14, of Troop 65890″It’s not hard,” added Meaghan Gokas, also 14, who sold more than 300 boxes last year.The door-to-door technique of selling is largely a thing of the past, although Page said family and friends are the first to be asked to purchase a $4 box of goodies. The girls use the same order form that has been used for generations, each cookie given a color, and number of boxes marked accordingly.Troop Leader Mary Gokas said the cookie trucks will roll into one location and they have to go and pick up cases of cookies. The girls then distribute them according to their individual order sheets and make deliveries.Samantha Benea, 13, said the whole process teaches them business management and finance skills. Including check writing, added Meaghan Gokas. They also learn people skills, said Emily Terrien, 9.More on Girl Scout cookiesBenea admits the cookies often sell themselves, but she said it can be a little trickier for the older girls to push the project. Aside from hitting up family and friends, the girls work cookie stands.”They set up outside churches, banks, the mall, City Hall,” said Maureen Benea, Samantha’s mother. “We do best at churches.”Samantha Benea said the younger, smaller girls like Terrien, Cailin Eriesian, 10, and Kayla MacDonald, 9, get away with holding up a box of cookies and looking sweet, but she and Page, Meaghan Gokas and Janee Courtois-Wallace, 13, have to work a little harder.”You exaggerate everything,” she said, waving her hand over the cookies like a game show host.Some of the girls have set goals.Eriesian said she would like to sell 200 boxes, and she is almost there. MacDonald said she has also set her sights on 200 boxes.When asked if the girls get competitive Meaghan Gokas didn’t hesitate.”Oh yeah,” she said.She said she and Terrien often sell about the same amount so they get competitive. Terrien said she has already sold 98 boxes, Meaghan Gokas was confident she would kick things into gear this weekend and pass her.The girls also have incentives for selling. Not only can they win badges and various patches depending on the number they sell, they can also do things like adopt a dolphin.Maureen Benea said troop-wide the girls are hoping to sell about 1,000 boxes. According to the Girl Scout organization about 70 percent of the proceeds stay within the troop.Mary Gokas said the girls will use the money they raise for a three-day stay at the Rocking Horse Ranch in Highland, N.Y.The girls have gone horseback riding in the past and camped out at Camp Lion where they meet, they’ve also stayed overnight in a museum and The New England Aquarium in Boston, but they’ve never gone away on a trip and they are very excited at the prospect.”If we were not in this (troop) we wouldn’t get to do half the things we do,” said Page.Mary Gokas said the girls have done a number of community projects, “so I thought it was time to do something for themselves.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected] COOKIES? The girls of Troop 65890 in Lynn will be trying to reach their sales goal by selling cookies in front of the Salem Five Bank on Boston Street today from 9 a.m. to noon.