A young and determined Girl Scout from Lehighton is on a countrywide mission to sell cookies to every state in America.

Emily Dick, 7, of Girl Scout Troop 3241 has been a part of the Girl Scout organization for three years. She first got the idea to take part in this cookie-selling project this year after seeing another Girl Scout attempt the same thing online. After seeing this, Emily decided she wanted to try to earn her own badge for selling cookies all across the country.

Only three weeks have passed, and Emily has sold over 500 boxes of cookies to 38 different states so far.

Each time Emily sells cookies to a new state, she is able to color it in on her map of the United States to keep track of her progress. Some of the states she still wishes to sell to include Kansas, Oregon, Tennessee, Montana, Idaho, Utah and New Hampshire.

This badge also serves as a learning experience for Emily considering she researches fun facts about the states that buy from her including information like state birds or state capitals. Her favorite state she has learned about so far has been Alaska.

Emily’s mother, Nicole Dick, explained that most of the cookie sales stem from her Facebook page and through friends on social media sharing Emily’s goal. This is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, causing cookie sales to operate a bit differently compared to previous years.

To promote safety, many purchases have been made online this cookie season. Each Girl Scout has a personal online link that customers can buy cookies from, ensuring that each cookie sale directly goes toward each individual scout.

“This year we’re not allowed to do in-person booths like we could before so the Girl Scout council has said that sales have to be through word of mouth or family. We’re allowed to do online orders and do contactless pickup where they have to drive by at a specific location and then we can give them their cookies. So this year if you order online you can pay by credit card but you can also choose girl delivery which our family has been taking advantage of and our troop has been pretty successful with. We just drop them off on the porches for local people and other people across the country choose to get them delivered to their house,” Nicole said.

With so many online orders, this also allows Emily to learn more about safe Internet usage regarding what information you share online.

“You have to be careful online because it can go anywhere and people could figure out things about you and where you live and try to take you away,” Emily said.

Both mother and daughter showed gratitude for the outpouring support from the community for helping with Emily’s cookie-selling goal.

“Thank you to everyone who has shared and been excited to follow her journey with this. It’s been really neat and heartwarming,” Nicole said.

Emily concluded by also expressing her appreciation for all of those that have helped by buying Girl Scout Cookies from her so far.

“It’s really cool to just know that people doing this appreciate the community of Girl Scouts.”