How 63,497 boxes of cookies supports volunteering, money skills in Rochester

Mar. 2—ROCHESTER — Leonora Reil, Aurora Reil and Claire Brown have 11 years of sales experience.

Cookie sales.

The Senior Girl Scouts started in the scouting organization by forming troop 44886 in kindergarten. Over the years, the three made friends, learned new skills — such as recruiting volunteers to help host events and communicating with customers — and perservered to become leaders among their fellow Girl Scouts.

Through the end of March, the trio — along with Girl Scouts from around the region and across the nation — will continue their annual cookie sales blitz from cookie booth locations ranging from grocery store chains to malls and local breweries and businesses.

"It's definitely more difficult as an older girl to get as much sales as we did when we were younger because I think when people see younger girls at a booth they want to give them that Girl Scout experience by helping them reach their cookie goal so they can maybe go to camp or do a little trip with their troop," Leonora Reil said. The remaining three troop members are sophomores at John Marshall High School. "When they see us older girls, maybe they think that we've probably been in Girl Scouts for so long that we've already had that experience."

On cookie go-day, Feb. 16, the troop settled into the rhythms of cookie season: place the tarp and tablecloth, add signs to alert people to their cookie booth, set out the cookies, prepare bags for customers and decide who will work with the money. The processes always center on the customer, confirming the availability of different types of cookies and wishing people a good day whether or not they purchased cookies.

During their first booth outside of Don's Pet Food & Supplies, the troop agreed sales would be "smooth sailing" once they headed back to their favorite indoor locations, including Silver Lake Foods and Hy-Vee North. Outdoor sales come with added hurdles such as the wind knocking over their stacked packages of cookies and difficulty enjoying the sales when their hands are kept warm by gloves stuffed with hand warmers.

"I think it can teach you what ways to sell, like it was a risk to drop selling door-to-door and just switch to cookie booths because you will get the sales sometimes, it depends on where you're going and ... how many you do," Brown said.

Girl Scouts store hundreds to thousands of cookies for six weeks of cookie sales, which this year run from Feb. 16 to March 24. They also restock their cookie supplies at cookie cupboards, or warehouses, such as the Rochester location near the city-county Government Center.

On their first Friday open, the cupboard had 3,095 cases, or 37,140 packages, of cookies. In 45 minutes, an assortment of more than 5,000 packages flew out the cupboard's garage door, cookie cupboard manager Jessica Sonbert said. She added the Rochester location is a smaller one with locations in Mankato and the Twin Cities also available.

The Rochester cupboard marked $453,550 through troop sales in 2023, which includes troops from throughout the River Valleys council. The River Valleys council includes southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and one county in Iowa.

In her 10th cookie season as cupboard manager, Sonbert knows how cookie season unfolds. The Peanut Butter Sandwiches are delivered once during the season. The Caramel Chocolate Chip gluten-free cookies also make a rare appearance. The amount of cookies at the cupboard fluctuates each week. Helen Hendrickson, troop 44886 cookie manager and co-troop leader, added the cupboard remains busy through the first two weeks of March when cookie booths are most prevalent. Hendrickson is also the Grandma of twins Aurora and Leonora Reil and she co-leads the troop with Jennifer Brown, Claire's mom.

"You see girls selling cookies at a table in front of the grocery store and you don't think much of it. I think give the girls, and especially give the parents, a lot of props for how much they're doing," said Ryan Allen, a float specialist with Girl Scouts River Valleys. "We'll have like one troop come in and they're picking up 150 cases, and when each case has 12 packages of cookies well you know just how many that they're managing and so each of those troops almost become their own mini warehouse."

Ellie Ohm is a Girl Scout Juliette, meaning she participates in individual and occasional group activities without being in the troop format. Ohm likes having fun and learning new skills between deliveries to booth stations after school and stacked weekends of cookie sales in Rochester and Winona. She "sometimes" likes meeting new people.

The Ohms partner as a family unit to work towards Ellie and her sister Isabelle's goal of camp, badges and travel. A few years into their system, the dad-daughter duos set up the booths to their personal likes and rotate through the hours-long shifts with the help of their mom. They learn lessons like how to respond kindly to people who have negative responses and accepting that not everyone will buy cookies. You have to keep asking, though, their dad Derek Ohm encouraged.

"It certainly has helped them with their communication skills and then money and the aspect of hard work and what it takes to reach the goal because we have a lot of boxes to sell yet," Derek Ohm said.

Though this season's goal is more of a question mark, the Ohm sisters started with 2,000 packages and sold over 300 packages in the first five days. They sold 4,000 packages last year. They plan to return to camp for activities such as horseback riding and paddle boarding. With a head tilt and smile pointed at her dad, Ellie Ohm said she hopes to earn a pair of VR goggles too.

While running their own businesses, the Rochester troops sold 63,497 packages of cookies in 2023. The River Valleys council sold 3.7 million packages. The classic Thin Mints and Caramel deLites have remained their top-sellers "for sure, by far," Aurora Reil said. Brown also sells cookies to Five West for their cheesecakes. On the troop's way to a counselor training camp to lead young girls in the future, they set their sale goal at 3,000 packages.

"The (cookie booths) are two, three hours too, and it's every weekend until the end of March. So the girls are really committed," Hendrickson said. "But they chose a really high goal, so it's up to them."

It's more than the fulfillment of a sweet treat, "we do a lot of community work too," Aurora Reil said. The troop donates cookies to organizations including Hope Lodge, Ronald McDonald House, the Elder Network and Dorothy Day House. They also shared their appreciation for bus drivers with last year's cookie donations. People can donate money for the projects at cookie booths and online.

"It's nice seeing the smile on people's faces too to donate stuff and help them," Aurora Reil said. The River Valleys council donated 93,500 packages in 2023.

As volunteers in the community, Aurora Reil said they've enjoyed projects like creating a map and signs for a local trail and hosting events at Camp Edith Mayo for younger Girl Scouts. At their most recent event, a cookie rally, the Seniors taught Daisies, Brownies, Juniors and Cadettes the five goals of cookie sales: goal setting, decision making, financial management, business ethics and people skills.

"When I was a younger girl we would have day camp here and just remembering that I used be a girl there and now I'm helping lead younger girls there and giving them the same experience that I had when I went there, I think that was pretty cool," Leonora Reil said.

The troop has also worked on fitness, babysitting, medical and outdoor skill badges. Brown said the badges are worked on through different steps and can be modified depending on the resources you have available. She added the badges "teach you life skills" and potential job interests. Ellie Ohm said "for the robotics one, we got to build robots and learn about all the wires and buttons (and coding)."

Each cookie season's sales help fund the troops with 57% supporting council services, programs and volunteer training; 22% supporting troop proceeds and sale rewards; and 21% supporting the cookie program and baker costs, according to the River Valleys council.

At her inside location at One Discovery Square on a Tuesday evening, Ellie Ohm set out to "keep plugging away" at her sales. She finds they have more $1 bills with the increase in price to $6 a package. Derek Ohm said adding credit card transactions has increased sales.

"It helps you like get not as shy to people and it helps you with like my money skills too," Ellie Ohm said.

While keeping track of the number of packages sold, she remembers the bigger sales too, such as a bus driver who purchased an entire case of Peanut Butter Patties. The driver bought three boxes to start this year. The Ohms' cookie sales placed them on the Girl Scouts' Dream Team with a special gathering and more rewards.

"The fun part is when ... the troop leaders come and pick up their rewards, the girls come with them and then it's just like seeing them all happy and smiley," Hendrickson said. "And this is what it's all about, it's all about the girls."

In the six-week grind of door-to-door, online and cookie booth sales, Derek Ohm said there are more booths available at the end of the season. He sees some of his daughter's best sales at those last few booths when people know the cookies will be gone for the next year.

Brown said people like to stock up on cookies, such as Thin Mints, and store them in the freezer. The Adventurefuls are ones Aurora Reil recommends but she's quick to add she likes all the cookies.

"I see them now where they'll sit as a group of the three girls and say, 'Well, what can we say to them to have people buy cookies?'" Hendrickson said. "They've grown into the customer relations more now than what they were before and they think ahead of time, 'What do we want to do? What is our goal?'"

As a troop of three, "each of our troop meetings is just like a meet-up with friends. We just hang out, it's nice," Aurora Reil said.

"It's a big community of girls that you feel at home with Girl Scouts because you make so many friends and get to know people and you do so much fun things while also learning communication with others," Aurora Reil said, "and just how to appreciate being in the moment, which isn't really something that you experience a lot in society now."