The 2022 Colorado Cookie Season presented its fair share of challenges, but this 4th-Generation Girl Scout from Arvada, CO rose above and managed to unite 50 states, 4 generations, and 2 service organizations through the Girl Scout cookie program.
Knowing the Colorado council was experiencing shortages and delays at the beginning of the sales season, Brownie and 4th-yr Girl Scout Evie Girard, #68191, and mom, Troop Leader Lisa Girard, started thinking outside the “cookie box” and shifted gears towards an idea to get cookies sold and shipped to all 50 states, and, in turn, earning the “I Sold Cookies to All 50 States” fun patch from Mad About Patches, another Girl Scout, girl-owned business.
Evie’s mother, Lisa, began a campaign on Facebook to start promoting Evie’s DOC link through the social media network. Inspired by what she had seen Girl Scouts in other states doing, Lisa posted weekly about Evie’s goal to get all 50 states. Her posts included a self-administered map of the states that had ordered and what states were left, along with photos of Evie doing girl-delivered order drop-offs, the fun patch she was aiming for, and a fun panoramic photo of her garage full of cookies on troop pick-up day.
During the final week, Evie was down to 11 states left to complete the 50-state challenge. A long-time friend of Lisa, Mr. Tim Bradberry, had been watching the weekly Facebook posts and reached out with a unique idea. Tim, a lifetime-member Mason of Shriners International and Maskat Shrine in Wichita Falls, TX and Texas Shrine Provost Guard Secretary, offered a generous donation to purchase enough cookies to get Evie to the last 11 states and asked that one box be sent to a Masonic Shrine in each of the last states Evie needed.
What Tim didn’t know when he made his generous offer is that Evie’s great-grandmother, the first generation Girl Scout in her family, was a Girl Guide in England, and came to the US in 1947 where she started many Girl Scout troops in Las Vegas, NV. She was also a 54-year lifetime-member of Eastern Star, the Masonic organization for women, and that Eastern Star was the most important guiding force her life. Her father, Evie’s great-great grandfather, was a 56-year Mason as part of a lodge in England.
Evie and Lisa signed an attached letter to each box sent to the Shrines that explained the donation, relationship to the Shriners organization, and the five skills the Girl Scout cookie program teaches. So thanks to a generous donation and some clever thinking, one Girl Scout was able to practice marketing and people skills, achieve a big goal, and support two integral organizations to her family and communities.
