Dear thief of Girl Scout cookie money in Tacoma:

Okay, so apparently you thought you needed the money. I mean, times are tight in this tough economy. I’m absolutely certain you took off with almost $500 in money that Girl Scouts raised for necessities in your life. You could have a starving baby at home who needs diapers. Or I don’t know. Maybe you have some other reason that’s absolutely not as honorable. Either way, stealing from a Girl Scout isn’t cool.

Maybe you caught the above-cited news story. The picture of the girl you see crying is either a Cadette or Senior Girl Scout. She’s not only selling cookies but probably enduring the ridicule of some of her classmates who don’t get the idea behind selling cookies each year. In above news story, the Girl Scout TELLS you how much money her troop stands to receive from each box sold. That’s right, out of that four dollars a customer gives per box, seventy cents of that goes directly to the troop. Whatever does a Girl Scout do with that money? I’m glad you asked, because I’m going to tell you what I got to do as a Girl Scout.

1. I camped with my troop, both at actual Girl Scout camps and at remote locations in Washington state. During one of those camping trips, I literally heard the blast of Mt St Helens.

2. I earned tons of badges based on basic stuff that I think more people should have the opportunity to learn. One time we learned how to properly set a dinner table at a meeting at South Colby Methodist Church. At the time I was sailing every weekend. Why would I need to know the difference between a salad fork and a dinner fork? Later on in life this knowledge would prove handy to have.

3. I attended leadership and team building camp weekends. One weekend our group was handed a bunch of ingredients, a ton of foil and told to come up with “foil dinners”. Little did we know that the head people with Totem Council/Cedar and Sound Association were going to show up and judge our performance. I thought the stuff tasted hideous. We learned quick that we had to work together as a team if we were going to end up serving lots of people.

4. I went through two summers of “counselor in training”, a couple summers of sailing and obtained my lifeguard certification as well. One camp week was planning and going on a canoe trip down Snake River. At the time I was again jealous of everyone else going to concerts and playing in the sun. My summer time taught me some important skills and knowledge.

5. One year, I sold enough cookies I got to view a play in Seattle. Blah-di-blah. Another year, I got to spend a day in Olympia shadowing one Carolyn Powers. That’s right, the SAME Carolyn Powers that’s currently serving on Port Orchard City Council. Before that, she spent some time in Olympia representing the 26th Legislative District. It was indeed an incredible experience having a tour of the Capitol grounds and meeting different legislators. I still have the letter from her thanking me for visiting. No, thank you. Thank you for teaching me that women can do anything and getting first hand how the legislature operates.

I could go on about the countless things that being a Girl Scout taught me but we’d be here all night on that. The point is, when you make the choice to steal from a Girl Scout (and this seems to be a growing trend and it should halt immediately) you’re not helping our youth one bit. You’re hindering their opportunity to do something constructive and educational. They’re working to learn entrepreneurial skills. The money they raise is for experiences that can’t always be taught at home or in a regular school setting. These girls don’t have to do this, but rather choose to do it because they desire an outstanding foundation that will bring them knowledge and positive spirit that can carry them for a lifetime.

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Tags: Carolyn Powers, Cedar and Sound Association, Girl Scout camp, Girl Scout cookie sale, GS cookie money thief Tacoma, Mt St Helens eruption, Samoas are the best cookies, South Colby Methodist Church, Totem Council

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 19:35:46 and is filed under daily dribble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.