Supporting Girl Scouts
I was thinking about this troop this morning, of Girl Scouts in the New York City shelter system. Maya was a Girl Scout for 10 years, and made wonderful friends, gained confidence, volunteered a ton, and learned valuable skills. Personally I will be happy if I never eat another GS cookie in my life, but when I see scouts selling in front of the grocery store, if I have any cash I will often donate to their troop. I don’t remember how much the troop keeps from the sale of each box, but just giving them $5 is like selling 10 boxes or something. Anyway, I learned about this troop several years ago, and I love supporting them. You can order cookies to be shipped to you, or you can just donate to their troop. Such a worthy cause.
From their website:
Launched in 2017, Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s Troop 6000 is a first-of-its-kind program designed to serve families living in temporary housing in the New York City shelter system.
Each week, Girl Scouts meet in shelters across the city to take part in activities that help them make new friends, earn badges, and learn to see themselves as leaders. All fees, uniforms, trips, and program materials are provided at no cost.
As a permanent fixture of the program, we also established the Troop 6000 Transition Initiative, which supports Girl Scouts and their families as they transition to permanent housing. The average stay for a family in a city shelter is 18 months. Remaining connected to the community and opportunities introduced to them through Troop 6000 can help facilitate a successful transition for girls and young people, and it is essential they continue to receive the financial support that allows them to do so.
For Troop 6000 members, not only does Girl Scouting mean fun, it means consistency and community – a network of supportive peers and adults who, even if they’ve never met before, have similar experiences and are part of the same club.
To learn more about Troop 6000’s expansion to serve recent immigrant and asylum-seeking families, click here.
23 Comments
Michelle G.
Awesome, J! Girls making a difference! <3
J
Thanks Michelle!
Michelle G.
I don’t know why 2 question marks showed up! I thought I was putting a heart emoji there.
J
Maybe I fixed it on the back end? At least it’s not the ?? Which has definitely happened to me in other blog comments. 🙂
Ernie
I’d never heard about this troop. :Why doesn’t the news highlight a story like this? What a great initiative.
Mini was a girl scout for a few years. It was different when we switched schools, and I don’t think she ever bothered after that, but she enjoyed it when she was involved. One year when her girl scout cookie orders came in, I arranged them all in stacks labeled with the purchaser’s last name. When we got down to the last few families to pick up their cookies a week later, some of the boxes were MISSING. Yep, her brothers ATE HER INVENTORY. That was embarrassing. I had to reimburse people, and apologize for shorting them some fo their cookies. I wasn’t writing a blog back then, but dang – if only. The stories I have from those chaotic times. 😉
J
Maya’s troop started when she was in elementary school, and the students dispersed to 3 or 4 different middle schools and high schools, and it was great while they were navigating those new environments for her to have this group of girls to come back and talk to. When they were little, it was mostly badges that they earned, doing crafts and going on field trips and so on. Then it became more camping and volunteering. When they got older they stopped camping, mostly because the parents backed off and left it all to them to figure out, which none of them wanted to do. But they did a lot of volunteer work, and I love that she stuck with it as long as she did.
LOL on the cookie situation. I think I would have been surprised if that HADN’T happened.
Margaret
Much as I like my boyfriend, he will say sometimes, “Oh, those are overpriced. You can get those at x store for way cheaper.” Then I have to kindly explain to him that it’s a fundraiser and that I would gladly pay more to help out worthy organizations. I will take a look at this although the Samoas are dangerous for me to have in the house! 🙂
J
Margaret, that’s why I just donate money instead of purchasing, both to this troop, and when I find girls selling. It’s a win win. The troop gets more money than they would if I bought cookies, and I don’t have cookies tempting me! Honestly, they’re not the best cookies anyway (though I like the flavors of the Samoas, I thing one can find better quality at the grocery store, or make cookies ones self…not that that has stopped me from eating an entire box over the course of a few days…)
Margaret
I went to the site and bought cookies (which I will share with family!) and also donated two boxes. Once I start seeing the Girl Scouts at stores, I’ll have to make sure to carry cash, which I usually don’t.
J
Yay! Thank you Margaret!
Ally Bean
A few weeks ago for the first time in 5 years we had a Girl Scout come to the front door to sell cookies. I was pleased and of course bought 5 boxes of cookies! I was happy to find out that there were troops who were back in the fundraiser business.
J
My daughter was the only girl scout in our neighborhood, and rarely went door to door except to folks she knew. They mostly did booth sales in front of the stores. I don’t need any cookies, but if a scout came to our door I would buy some for sure.
AC
Our two girls and then Danica never took to scouting. They did try Brownies and didn’t love it. Brownies are the young scouts here, or I guess we really call them Girl Guides and not Scouts. Don’t ask me. But we like buying their cookies to. That troop sounds exceptional.
J
I’m not sure my daughter would have gotten into it if her best friends at the time weren’t in the troop. She got a lot out of it.
Elisabeth
Would you believe I’ve never had Girl Scout cookies? I’m pretty sure they exist in Canada, but it’s not nearly as prevalent as the States.
I just finished Povery, By America by Matthew Desmond and it was so sobering. Such interesting insights and he doesn’t hold back in basically saying wealthy white people are clutching their pearls saying they can’t do anything to help impoverished people in their communities when, in fact, they can.
J
Yes, my friend’s daughter was a Girl Guide for years and sold cookies. I wonder if they’re good there? They’re OK here, but not as good as homemade. Really it’s just a way to raise money for troop activities and to support the organization.
Karen Meg
My sister was a brownie in elementary school, and I bought Girl Guide cookies every single year for the longest time here in Canada. Usually a couple boxes, one vanilla and one chocolate, at a time. And usually finished half the boxes before my kids got to them. We looked into Guides for G but there weren’t any groups too close to us, unfortunately.
J
Now that the kids are away at school, will you still buy? I bought cookies for a couple of years after my daughter aged out, but then I ended up eating most of them, so I don’t buy them anymore.
Nicole MacPherson
Awesome!
J
Thanks Nicole!
Maya
I heard about this troop on NPR once, and they’ve lived in my head ever since…
Thank you for this reminder, J–this is as good a time as any to donate.
If you’re feeling particularly generous, and since 47 is targeting trans youth, Erin Reed has a list of trans girl scouts to order from: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/2025-trans-girl-scouts-to-order-cookies
J
Oh Maya, thank you, I didn’t know of these! Will hop on over and donate, I don’t actually want any cookies.
Stephany
I just heard about the Girl Scouts troop on a random social media scroll! How prescient that you talked about them, too. I am probably going to pass on GS cookies this year due to the ole maybe-diabetes diagnosis, but I’m going to pass along this info to friends!