Local girl named top cookie seller in county

Published 6:08 pm Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Elizabeth Williams

Elizabeth Williams

A Washington girl was recently named a top seller for the 2015 Girl Scout Cookie Sale Program, selling a little more than 1,800 boxes this year.

Elizabeth Williams, a long-time Girl Scout of Troop 3028 of Old Ford and rising eighth-grader, was named one of the top sellers in Beaufort County, according to a Girl Scouts-N.C. Coastal Pines press release. Troop 3028 is part of the N.C. Coastal Pines region, encompassing 41 central and eastern North Carolina counties.

According to Elizabeth’s mother, Jenny Williams, this year was Elizabeth’s highest total. She has cumulatively sold more than 8,000 boxes since she has been a Girl Scout. As a fifth-year leader and cookie mom for her daughter’s troop, Jenny Williams is in charge of ordering and dispersing every box of cookies the troop sells, as well as organizing cookie booths at major stores, she said.

And while it isn’t true for every troop, Jenny Williams’ troop uses cookie sales as their lifeline for purchasing supplies for meetings, taking trips and each girl’s registration each year, she said. And that entails the girls and parents taking shifts each Saturday from January to March — in the rain, in the cold — for six to eight hours, selling cookies to the masses.

“Our troop really pushes cookies because it funds everything we do,” Jenny Williams said.

But that’s not the only thing the girls get from selling cookies, Jenny Williams said.

“They learn a lot of skills,” Jenny Williams said. “They learn to deal with money, money management, sales techniques, customer service — skills they will need in life anyway. It’s not like they’re just making money; they learn a lot of skills along the way. They learn how to market their product and keep up with records of who they normally sell to, and they learn how to talk to customers.”

The mother-daughter duo also get an added to benefit to selling so many cookies — Super Star Destination Points, levels of selling that give prizes based on number of boxes sold, Jenny Williams said. The points can be used to get tickets to movie theaters, theme parks and points that can be redeemed to pay for Elizabeth to attend summer camp, her main drive behind the dedication to sell so many, Jenny Williams said.

“I think she like the title, to be honest,” Jenny Williams said. “But her biggest motivation is she loves going to summer camp, and it’s not cheap. Her motivation, besides the profits and activities, is she earns these points to be able to pay for her summer camp. That’s the main reason she gets up and does this.”