VIDEO: Girl Scout Cookie Season Kicks Off

VAN VLEET, Miss. (WCBI)- It’s that time of the year again, when area girl scouts will come knocking on your door to buy cookies.

Eighty girls from the Girl Scouts Heart of the South Council gathered at Camp Tik-a-Witha to get ready for a special season, the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Girl Scout Cookies. A century ago girls starting taking part in what would evolve into the largest entrepreneurial training program for girls in the world.

“A hundred years ago Girl Scouts saw that they needed to fund the activities that they were doing and so some Girl Scouts got together and they baked the first Girl Scout cookies. And so that’s what we’re celebrating is our hundredth anniversary of Girl Scouts using Girl Scout cookie money to fund community projects and the fun and adventure that they have in Girl Scouts,” says Jenny Jones.

Jones says this weekend’s cookie kickoff is aimed at better equipping girls to do their job.

“Girls are learning skills about goal setting. They’re learning about giving back to the community with their cookie funds. And we’re getting them pumped up so they can go out and reach their goal,” says Jones.

“I like to sell cookies because you can learn about being social with other people so you can sell them and if you’re younger you can learn how to count money much better. And when you sell cookies you have to like take the cookies so you can tell the people what you like about the cookies,” says Lauren Atterbury.

Allison Wray of Pontotoc likes to tell people about how to donate cookies to troops overseas.

“Troop to troop is one the best things about Girl Scout cookies because if you don’t want to eat the cookies you could donate some of course you still pay for it but you can donate them to troops overseas any cookies you want to,” says Wray.

15-year Amber Allen of Amory has only been in the Girl Scouts for about two months.

“I really want to help out with my community and I just really wanted to help get to know new people, maybe help the community out and I really just wanted to get to know everybody,” says Allen.

She says she wants to donate her first Girl Scout cookie money to the Amory Food Pantry.

“There’s a lot of people out there that don’t have food and I guess it would be nice to give it to them. And they need food and we have what we’ve got and that’s why we do what we do. So there are people at the food pantry who need help and that’s what we’re their for,” says Allen.

Five thousand girls in the Girl Scouts Heart of the South Council will be selling cookies this year.

Across the country, nearly 1 million Girl Scouts participate in the Girl Scout Cookie Program generating nearly 800-million dollars in sales during an average season.