{"id":103534,"date":"2026-02-03T04:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/103534\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T04:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:06:09","slug":"philadelphia-honors-girl-scout-cookie-sales-at-firstival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/103534\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia honors Girl Scout cookie sales at \u2018Firstival\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Dozens of former Girl Scouts and Girl Scout cookie lovers from across Philadelphia gathered to celebrate the origins of the group\u2019s public cookie sales Saturday, marking the fifth week of the Philadelphia Historic District 250th Committee\u2019s \u201c52 Weeks of Firsts\u201d initiative<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

The event honored the longstanding partnership between Girl Scouts of the USA and PECO and took place at PECO\u2019s headquarters at 23rd and Market streets. Visitors sampled and purchased cookies, voted on their favorite flavors and heard the story of the Girl Scouts\u2019 origins, honoring their place in Philadelphia\u2019s history.\n<\/p>\n

America\u2019s first public Girl Scout cookie sale occurred in 1932, when Girl Scouts used \u201cdemonstration ovens\u201d to bake cookies that they later sold out the window of PECO\u2019s original Broad Street headquarters, according to Nicole Levine, PECO\u2019s chief operating officer and board chair of the\u00a0 Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.\n <\/p>\n

\"AEvent organizers and community members pose with the #1 sculpture designed to honor America\u2019s first Girl Scout cookie sale at last weekend\u2019s \u2018Firstival.\u2019 (Emily Scolnick\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re honored the Girl Scouts are being recognized for one of [Philadelphia\u2019s] firsts today, a story that\u2019s shared with us at PECO and has grown into a lasting national tradition,\u201d Levine \u2014 a former Girl Scout \u2014 told the gathered crowd. She credited the Girl Scouts with giving her the leadership skills she uses as PECO\u2019s first female COO.\n<\/p>\n

Attendees had the opportunity to hear the story of the first cookie sale told by a storyteller from Once Upon a Nation, a storytelling program sponsored by the Historic District of Philadelphia, and admire the sculpture created to honor this week\u2019s historic \u201cfirst.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so excited to be included,\u201d GSEPA CEO Kim Fraites said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big year for the country, and obviously for Philadelphia.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Phylicia Epps, GSEPA\u2019s head of Philadelphia strategy and partnerships, said that as a former Girl Scout herself, she has enjoyed playing a role in the organization\u2019s growth in the city and being part of the America 250 celebrations<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Philadelphia has so much to celebrate. It\u2019s amazing to see folks come out for all of the different firsts, and we are just honored to be a part of that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been so cool to talk to other folks and be like, \u2018I was a Girl Scout growing up,\u2019 and [see them] wanting to come here to celebrate the Girl Scouts.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The weekly Philadelphia events, known as \u201cFirstivals,\u201d each feature a unique sculpture that is placed at the city location where each historic \u201cfirst\u201d took place. So far, sculptures have been placed at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia to honor America\u2019s first balloon flight<\/a>, the Mummers Museum to honor the first folk parade<\/a>, the Fireman\u2019s Hall Museum to honor the first volunteer fire company<\/a>, and at Xfinity Mobile Arena to honor the first professional basketball league<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33713,69,4001,71,70],"class_list":["post-103534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-girl-scouts","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-250","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}