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Show Girl Scout cookie sales big business in Davis County By KRIS JOHNSON Staff Writer CENTERVILLE It's Girl Scouts cookie time again and some might not know it but the door-to-door campaign is big business in Utah, where sales total over $1.4 million. In fact, Utah Girl Scouts had the nation's highest average of cookie sales last year-179 boxes per girl, a spokeswoman said. How do they do it? Just ask Amy Pace, II, who led her South Davis Girl Scouts Branch by selling 861 boxes of cookies in 1990. "Selling Girls Scout cookies is fun," says Pace, who is a Junior Girl Scout from Woods Cross. "Ya gotta be nice and stuff, because after you're done, you get to go to camp. There's lots of camps you can go to and last year I went to a horse camp." Amy is out there, knocking on doors again as part of another great cookie sale, which began Friday and will continue through March 6. More than 7,500 girls representing repre-senting 850 Utah Girl Scout troops will participate in the 1991 cookie sales. Davis County has 1,079 girls, and 222 of them are in the South Davis Branch, which represents most of Bountiful and Woods Cross. The South Davis troop sold 18,745 boxes of cookies last year, including the 861 peddled by Amy, who sold more than any other girl in her troop. Heather Schwulst, 11, came in second with 850 boxes. In 1990, Utah Girl Scouts sold an average of 179 boxes per girl, which added up to 720,000 boxes of cookies. They made $1.44 million from their salesthe highest average in the nation, according to national Girl Scout statistics. Cookie sale proceeds provide SEE SCOUTS ON A-4 t i Scouts CONTINUED FROM A-l M I almost 70 percent of the Utah Girl Scouts Council's income which ; funds the nationwide "Right to Read" service project, statewide Girl Scout program events; and vear-round troop activities such as Girl Scout camps, service projects, scholarships, and MathScience j workshops. J The concept of selling Girl Scout I cookies began in 1912, when the Girl Scouts started baking cookies at home and selling them to raise money for their troops. The first commercially baked Girl Scout cookies were sold in 1934. The girls have a set of official guidelines they must follow when selling Girl Scout cookies, which states: Thank people whether they buy or not; use the buddy system; do not enter strange homes; sell door-to-door only during daylight hours, and always be courteous. "I learned to be polite when you sell stuff to people' said Julie Blundell, 7, who is a Brownie Girl Scout from Centerville. "I like selling sell-ing cookies because I can help the troop, and it pays for some of the camps and stuff.' Girl Scouts of U.S.A. is the largest voluntary organization for girls in the world with a girl-adult membership of over 3.2 million. It's part of a worldwide family of girls and adults in 1 1 8 countries through its membership in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. reflect the needs and maturity of the girls in these groups, said BlimHell. The first level is the Daisy Girl Scout which is for kindergarteners and first graders. Some of their activities ac-tivities include sharing stories, celebrating other cultures' holidays, growing a garden in an egg shell and making musical instruments for their Daisy Girl Scout Band. The neT level is the Brownie Girl Scouts, which includes grades one through three. Some of their activities ac-tivities include visiting the Children's Museum of Utah, making mak-ing a map of their neighborhood, discovering things through a magnifying magni-fying glass and simmering homegrown vegetables in a stew. Grades three through six include the Junior Girl Scouts. At this level, they get to take a babysitting class at a local hospital. They learn how to use computers and they get to attend at-tend a performance of Ballet West's Nutcracker Ballet. One of their primary activities is setting up a 4 'Reading Pals" program with younger girls to fight illiteracy. The next level is the Cadette Girl Scout, which includes grades six through nine. Some of the activities at this level include running the white-river rapids of the Colorado River in southern Utah, holding a bicycle safety clinic for younger Girl Scouts, tracing their family heritage and genealogy and putting up a display at their local library to promote international friendship. The final level is the Senior Girl Scouts level, which includes grades nine through 12. These girls formulate for-mulate goals and directions for Girl Scouting, which includes coordinating coor-dinating a statewide conference. |