Same great bite-size joy, Girl Scout cookie sale
SISTERS Sabrina and Abigail Kampf hope to sell 800 boxes each. Photo by Heather Kampf
Girl Scout cookies are always met with great delight, but especially with an ongoing pandemic, local Girl Scouts hope their cookie-sized bits of happiness will provide much needed smiles this season.
“They bring people joy,” Hanna Allee of Troop 17125 said, “and they taste good, too.”
The cookie kick-off began on Jan. 11, but nowhere to be found were the iconic cookie booths and troops setting up shop on Larchmont Boulevard. That is because Girl Scouts have transitioned to a largely virtual cookie campaign this year.
The national Digital Cookie platform, launched in 2014, allows each Girl Scout to set up her own virtual booth and receive online orders. Fortunately, many Girl Scouts are already technologically savvy.
New troop
Piper Mazzela, 9, of Park La Brea, helped form Troop 71115 — based at Rosewood STEM Magnet — in December, and this is her first year selling cookies. She posted a welcome video on her Digital Cookie website and said it was easy to edit because she has experience making videos for her YouTube channel Piper Miper.
Mazzela said she is excited to sell cookies, even in a virtual setting, because she likes to raise money for good causes. Previously, she ran lemonade stands and went on walks for charity.
“I’m excited to sell cookies. It’s what I’m most looking forward to in Girl Scouts, besides the camping trips because I’ve never been camping,” Mazzela said. “When I was doing the things before, I wasn’t making money for myself — kind of like Girl Scouts, where you’re not making money for yourself.”
Mazzela and her mother formed Troop 71115 during the pandemic, and the six Girl Scouts had their first troop meeting on Jan. 17.
Mid-Wilshire troop
NEW GIRL SCOUT Piper Mazzela began working on starting her troop last summer. In honor of Martin Luther King Day of Service she wore her Girl Scout sash and her Equality shirt. Photo by Allyson Laughlin
The idea of a virtual troop caused Mid-Wilshire-based Troop 17125’s membership to drop to five Girl Scouts. Even so, the Girl Scouts are ambitious and excited for cookie sales.
Sabrina Kampf, 8, a Third Street School student, and Abigail Kampf, 12, of GALA (Girls Academic Leadership Academy), want to sell 800 boxes each. Many of their sales in previous years came from cookie booths, and although they will have to turn toward social media more this season, Sabrina Kampf said she already sold 50 boxes within the first week.
Girl Scout prizes help set benchmark goals for cookie sales. Sabrina Kampf hopes she will have enough customers to earn a pack of LED lights, which is one of the 800-box prizes.
“[Customers] want to help the Girl Scouts probably because Girl Scouts get prizes if they sell a lot of cookies, so I think they want to help the Girl Scouts out.”
Abigail Kampf has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten, and while it is her sixth year selling cookies, the pandemic has showed her that she has more to gain from the experience.
“I’m interested in seeing how I find new customers, and, because I didn’t do too much social media before because my mom doesn’t really do social media, I want to see how it turns out.”
Vivien Lyra Blair, 8, also has an 800-box goal and has been using her Facebook account and Instagram account @vivienlyrablair, which has 152,000 followers, to promote her Digital Cookie website. Blair is an actress who has starred as Guppy in “We Can Be Heroes” on Netflix and “Girl” in Bird Box.
She said she is going to miss selling cookies door-to-door, but loves selling cookies and will be saving a few Lemon-Ups for herself.
“Girl Scout cookies has always been a symbol of lightening people’s spirits, kind of giving them hope,” Blair said. “I think that’s what this world needs right now: hope.”
Category: Entertainment
