Girl Scout Cookie sales are important not only as a fundraiser, but also for the lessons they impart on troop members,

Indeed, cookie sales can be crucial in their development, according to Meranda Hess, troop leader of Tamaqua Troop 33013.

Hess said cookie sales focus on five skills: Goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.

“So it’s more than fundraising,” Hess said. “It’s helping the girls learn vital leadership skills that they can carry through life.”

Currently, Hess said her troop is taking preorders, as their cookies are not delivered to them until the weekend of March 9. However, she said their direct sales start on March 13, and then run until April 12.

Hess said cookie booths play a vital role in her troop’s sale of Girl Scout Cookies.

“Our troop has typically had a good portion, more than half of our sales come from cookie booths,” she said. “They also do door-to-door sales.”

Hess said Girl Scout Cookies are now also able to be ordered online through a digital cookie.

She said there is a nationwide cookie booth locator so anyone in the country can use it. It can be found at https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/all-about-cookies.html.

Hess added that a lot girls will do marketing videos for cookies, often making pleas for a “50 state challenge” or writing parodies of popular songs.

“The girls are very passionate about cookies,” she said.