C is for Cookie

RIO RANCHO — It was an ambitious sight Jan. 25 at a cookie rally for a local Girl Scout unit at Community of Joy Lutheran Church. That ambition had everything to do with running a nationally famous business, the business of selling cookies.

Christi Boomer, the service unit manager for Desert Rose Service Unit 152 of Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails, got the girls excited to learn financial literacy skills before they broke out into groups.

“Are you guys ready to have fun?” she asked the girls.

In unison, they said, “Yeah!”

Boomer came prepared, wearing a panda costume, representing the animal the cookies will celebrate in 2025.

Sarah Jucha, Every Girl Initiative Program Coordinator and staff member of the state Girl Scout organization, explained the event’s significance.

“What we do at the cookie rallies is we’re teaching the girls the early skills for financial literacy. We’re teaching them about money counting. We’re teaching them about customer service and entrepreneurship and about how to be safe while selling Girl Scout cookies,” she said.

It is an annual tradition that gets the girls ready to start selling in the spring. Jucha says for some girls, the tradition goes further back than that.

“The girls love doing the cookie sales, they get to go in public, they get to sell and use their skills,” she added. “We actually have a couple girls that are here just because their moms used to sell cookies, and they really really want to bring the girls and do those traditions that they had with their moms.”

Every year, the number-one thing the girls need to learn is how to be safe when selling cookies, she said.

“Every year we emphasize our girls’ safety is our first and foremost thing; we don’t want them doing anything like walking into people’s houses and walking indoors. So we start with safety and then we move on to things like money, counting, how to count change, understanding what they’re selling, and they have a lot of fun doing it,” Jucha said.

It helps that some of the volunteers are teachers and parents, she added.

“Parents are key. These girls cannot sell without an adult with them. So we teach the parents, just like we teach the girls; they’re learning all the same entrepreneurship skills,” she explained.

Jucha also said the cooking season is first and foremost a financial literacy program.

“After that, I would like people to know that the money that we use for selling all the profits goes right back into the community. This is not a profit-making venture for anyone. Every bit of this, including 75 cents per box sold, goes right back to the troops. They get to decide how they’re going to spend their money. Each of these girls will have voted within their troop about how they’re going to spend it,” she said.

One parent, Destinee Fagundas, was at the rally with her two daughters, 6-year-old Journey and 8-year-old Serenity Chavez.

“I think this is such a great event to do prior to cookie season so they understand safety and foundational skills before they go into the whole public aspect, without understanding the safety components of it,” she said.

For them, this cookie rally was the first in-person event they had attended.

“I’m looking forward to the season. My girls get really excited to pursue a goal and really work towards that goal. They get very motivated to get involved with their family and see what the different activities are that they can work towards,” she said.

She was also glad her girls are learning integral life skills.

Serenity said she loves pandas so it’s a fun experience for her and a cause she can help. Her sister Journey shared that pandas have six toes rather than the five people have. She was concerned about their extinction.

The unit will begin sales in February. For more information on Girl Scouts, visit girlscouts.org.