Staff Report

Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois (GSNI) announces the Second Annual Cookie Kick-Off with the Rockford IceHogs from 2-5 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 15, at the BMO Harris Bank Center, 300 Elm St. in Rockford. Local Girl Scouts will participate in exciting, hands-on activity booths to help them discover the five important skills of the Girl Scout Cookie Program — goal setting, decision making, money management, business ethics, and people skills!

Girl Scouts at the event will help the community through a creataive T-shirt service project to provide warm scarves for the homeless this winter seaosn. A Girl Scout Cookie pep rally, featuring mascots from the IceHogs and GSNI, will take place from 5-5:45 p.m. There will also be a tasting booth for this year’s delicious varieties of Girl Scout Cookies!

Girls will take orders for the Girl Scout Cookie Program from Jan. 5-27, 2013. The Cookie Kick-Off provides a pre-holiday opportunity for girls to learn how to successfully run their own small business and helps increase their knowledge base as today’s premier young female entrepreneurs.

Girl Scout Cookie Program benefits

Through Girl Scouting, girls become leaders in their daily lives and prepare for their futures. To millions of girls, Girl Scout Cookies provide an opportunity to travel, explore science and math, and learn about a career. Because not only are these cookies great, but they are at the center of the largest business and economic literacy program for girls! The Girl Scout Cookie Program provides an important ingredient for leadership by helping girls develop five key skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.

Through the Girl Scout Cookie Program, girls participate in carefully developed, age-appropriate cookie activities that help develop these skills that they can apply throughout their lives. Even the youngest Girl Scouts gain self-confidence and poise by learning how to greet customers and offer cookies for purchase. As girls grow, emphasis is placed on getting to know their product – ingredients, calories – to designing innovative and creative marketing strategies and tools. Girls learn to plan, set goals, build teams, speak up, make decisions, solve problems and manage resources. Over time, the skills girls gain set them on a path to be leaders, in their own lives and in their communities.

Girls also have the opportunity to give back to their community through the Girl Scout Cookie Program with the Gift of Caring: Cookies for the Military or the Commuity Gift of Caring. Girls can choose from offering customers the chance to purchase cookies for soldiers, or purchase cookies for a community organization designated by the troop.

About Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois

Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois serves nearly 20,000 girls and 6,000 adult volunteers in parts of all of Boone, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties.

Through the Girl Scout Leadership Experience, girls in grades K through 12 are engaged in discovering themselves, connecting with others, and taking action to make the world a better place. Girls develop leadership potential by participating in age-appropriate activities that enable them to discover their values, skills and the world around them. Activities in science and technology, business and economic literacy, and outdoor and environmental awareness provide girls with opportunities for fun and friendship while fostering the development of leadership skills and self-esteem. For more information on how to join, volunteer, reconnect or donate to Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois, visit www.girlscoutsni.org ^[1] or call 1-800-242-5591.

From the Dec. 12-18, 2012, issue