Junior Girl Scout Seleena Jackson, 10, restocks the cookies while waiting for customers outside the commissary on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, in February 2023. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Thin Mints and Samoas have returned to U.S. military bases overseas, in the hundreds of thousands.
Girl Scouts on Friday will open their annual global campaign to put a box of their signature cookies in every pantry, backpack and secret snack hiding place.
More than 228,000 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies have been delivered to installation bases in Europe, the Pacific and elsewhere abroad, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service announced Jan. 25.
The cookies cost $6 a box and come in nine varieties well-known to aficionados: Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, S’mores, Do-si-dos, Lemon-Ups, Trefoils, Adventurefuls and the gluten-free Toffee-tastic.
Expect Scouts to be offering them on weekends outside commissaries and AAFES shops until mid-March, or when the cookies sell out.
At Yokota Air Base, the U.S. airlift hub in western Tokyo, Scouts took possession of 6,012 boxes on Jan. 17, cookie manager and troop leader Emily Crossman told Stars and Stripes during a visit to the Scouts’ hut on Jan 26.
The girls gathered a few days later to sample their products and sharpen their sales skills while earning their finance, marketing and cookie badges.
“It helps to support the girls in their growth of entrepreneurship, financial literacy, being able to talk to customers and to people as well, creating bonds within their troops and working together as a group,” Crossman said of the cookie campaign.
Daisy Girl Scout Ariyah Aguirre, 6, lifts a box of cookies outside the commissary at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, in February 2023. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
Yokota has 52 registered Scouts in five troops, including Daisies, Brownies and Juniors, said Sonja Dalton, chairwoman for the Yokota Girl Scouts. They appear to be prepared for the retail season.
“I have become more confident to talk to strangers and I can do easy math if they buy less than $20, and I can count and give them change,” said Elizabeth Ogrosky, 6, of Daisy Troop 80516.
First-time cookie vendor Alyssa Alder, 6, joined the Girl Scouts in September.
“Cookies are the most important thing,” she said. “It brings people together.”
Girl Scouts on Okinawa will start selling after school lets out Friday, Leticia O’Connor, the Kadena Air Base troop leader, said by email Monday.
Cookie sales also begin that day at bases in South Korea, said Alex Miller, membership manager for USA Girl Scouts Overseas. She helps the Girl Scout communities in South Korea, Japan and China.
“We bring the Girl Scout program to military, foreign service and American expat families living overseas and ensure that no matter where American families move, they will have access to a great Girl Scout experience,” Miller said by email Friday.
USA Girl Scouts Overseas shipped 127,188 boxes of cookies to the 25 military installations in Europe, according to Carolyn Hicks, the organization’s membership manager in Italy.
There are 3,000 members — approximately 2,500 scouts and 500 volunteers — at bases in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain, she said by email Thursday. Cookie sales start Friday there, too.
“It is the largest girl-led entrepreneurial, financial literacy program in the world and provides the primary source of funding for the troops and community activities,” Hicks wrote.
