\u201cTrefoil,\u201d<\/a> a shortbread cookie.\u00a0<\/p>\nOther Girl Scout chapters heard about the sales and adopted a similar strategy, Fraites-Dow said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFour years later, because it was so wildly successful, our national organization, Girl Scouts of the USA, adopted it as a national opportunity for girls across the country,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
History\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Girl Scouts are more than 100 years old, with the first Girl Scouts chapter forming in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia. Philadelphia was the fifth national Girl Scouts council in the country, Fraites-Dow said.<\/p>\n
The organization, which was created before women secured the right to vote, has grown to empower women throughout generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur organization has been diverse since its inception,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are a lot of wonderful opportunities for girls from every community to participate, which I think is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization has expanded over time to include more girls, Fraites-Dow said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when I was growing up, there was really only Brownies and up,\u201d she said. \u201cNow there\u2019s Daisies and up, so that\u2019s kindergarten through first grade. So there are now opportunities for girls starting in kindergarten, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Girl Scouts now have six levels of programming, which correspond to grade levels:<\/p>\n
Daisies (Kindergarten-1st grade)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brownies (2nd-3rd grades)<\/p>\n
Juniors (4th-5th grades)<\/p>\n
Cadettes (6th-8th grades)<\/p>\n
Seniors (9th-10th grades)<\/p>\n
Ambassadors (11th-12th grades)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today,\u00a0 Fraites-Dow said, the organization provides more STEM programming, produces award-winning Scout members, and allows girls to be active participants in their communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The celebration is a point of pride for all involved with Girls Scouts locally, said Amanda Harrity, the director of product program at Girl Scouts of Eastern PA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the largest girl-led entrepreneur program in the world,\u201d she said. \u201cSo to be able to call on Philly for really starting a foundation of talking to our Girl Scouts that build their key skills, like their money management or their paper skills, and find that [the cookie sales] started here is amazing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than just a cookie\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each \u201cFirstival\u201d involves the creation of a sculpture. Carol Cannon-Nesco, a native Northeast Philadelphian, artist and gardener, created the Girl Scouts\u2019 milestone.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an attempt to gather the essence of the different Girl Scout qualities, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_4597.jpg\")
Cannon-Nesco celebrated the first Girl Scout cookie sale with her \u201cFirstival\u201d creation (Violet Comber-Wilen\/Billy Penn) <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is lots of color,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there are all the different Girl Scout cookies. And then the other side has all the badges for our new Girl Scouts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The back of the sculpture includes the name of each cookie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cannon-Nesco comes with a connection. When she was younger, she was the top cookie seller in her Girl Scout troop. She said the organization offers lots of life lessons for younger girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every girl should have the experience of being a Girl Scout,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s meeting people, it\u2019s going places, it\u2019s entrepreneurship and selling things, and it\u2019s creative things you do. It\u2019s just a wonderful program.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fraites-Dow echoes that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of girls who come to Girl Scouts who are extremely shy and nervous about talking to new people through the cookie program,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, they are working together, preparing a script on what to say, and engaging with folks and then really building a lot of confidence in their ability to sell a product that is really important to them, so that they can earn money to do amazing things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
These sales also give girls the opportunity to learn more about managing money, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many girls who participate in Girl Scouts, they may not have a lot of discretionary income in their household,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, through this program, if they set big goals and they work together as a team, they can save up money and pay for their own experiences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harrity said the sales impact local programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c75% of the proceeds stay right here, going back to our troops to fund what they\u2019re working on, like their service projects, their trips, and maybe even troops going to Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also then comes back to eastern Pennsylvania to make sure that our camps stay open.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Future\u00a0<\/p>\n
Girl Scout cookie sales will continue through March 22. The season was recently extended to account for inclement weather in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A special facet of this year\u2019s sale is the addition of a new cookie \u2013 the Exploremores, Fraites-Dow said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new cookie is a really fun way to celebrate how girls are discovering a strong sense of self, because they\u2019re exploring so many different things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sandwich cookie. So a lot of folks love a good sandwich cookie. It\u2019s crunchy on the outside and it has a cream inside, kind of like an Oreo. It\u2019s all chocolate, and it\u2019s inspired by the ice cream flavor Rocky Road.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friates-Dow said next weekend\u2019s \u201cFirstival\u201d will be hosted, in a tie-in to the first cookie sale, at the PECO headquarters on 23rd and Market streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cPECO has been one of our stalwart supporters for decades,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve really been investing in girls and ensuring that girls, especially in Philadelphia, have every opportunity accessible to them to succeed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can attend the Girl Scouts\u2019 \u201cFirstival\u201d celebration on Saturday, Jan. 31, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania is celebrating a major \u2013 and delicious \u2013 milestone ahead of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4000,60,227,33713,94,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-96983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america-250","tag-business","tag-education","tag-girl-scouts","tag-history","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96983","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=96983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}