Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
We're each and every week right here. We come together,
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. It is great to be
with you again this week for the final show of
twenty twenty four. I'm Nicole Davis. So I think actually
you know, I know that I have mentioned here on
the show before that I was a Girl Scout back
(00:29):
when I was a child, many years ago, and honestly,
one of the best parts of the year was getting
to sell the cookies. Not to be fair, eating them
is better, but it was always such a fun contest
with the members of the trup. You know, how many
could you sell? Could you beat the rest of your
troop and be the top cookie getting that fun patch. Now,
all these years later, I'm not a very good business woman. Look,
I know my strengths and weaknesses. I am not a
(00:51):
businesswoman at the core, but I am a heck of
a cookie customer, along with many of us here in
New England. Good news if you happen to want some
Girl Scout cookies for your New Year's Eve party. The
Girl Scouts of Eastern Mouse, well they can help you out.
Executive Director Monica Roberts is here, and Monica, for people
who might not be as familiar with the Scouts outside
Cookie time, tell us more about the program, what the
(01:13):
girls do, and all the lessons they learn.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So Girl Scouts is an organization. First of all, it's
the largest girls serving organization in the country and certainly
in our state. And we work from with girls of
all ages from kindergarten to the twelfth grade to really
unleash their potential through their Girl Scout experience. And we're
looking to build girls of confidence, couraging character through a
(01:39):
range of experiences, everything from career exploration we're particularly looking
at careers where women are underrepresented, to building financial skills
and engaging in things like the outdoors, so that we
think about how we build the whole person and really
creating a space for girls to explore. They are all
(02:01):
of their options so they can define who they want
to be and they have the confidence and courage to
do that.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, and of course you serve eastern Massachusetts, not just Boston,
though you cover quite a bit of ground. How many
towns and cities do you cover?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yes, we cover one hundred and seventy cities and towns,
including about seventy percent of our gateway cities. We serve
almost twenty thousand girls in our state.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That is an impressive number. And especially what I love
is that you do work with people in those gateway cities,
those families to make sure that underserved children do have
access to like Girl Scout camp, which could change somebody's
life if they normally can't get into the woods and
go camping. You know, I really love that you focus
on those underserved neighborhoods to make sure that girls have
(02:45):
an equal footing to everybody else when it comes to experience.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's particularly important for me just
being born and raids in Boston.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I'm one of six children.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh wow, And yes, and I was fortunate to be
My mom was able to stay at home and my
dad able to work and care for us. But I
know that wasn't true for a lot of the children
our community. And we were fortunate also for my two
younger sisters to have access to Girl Scouts and just
of any wonderful opportunities that has so for me, bringing
(03:16):
the experience and the access and opportunity and understand the
thing also the social capital that girls built being part
of the movement is really important, and there are a
lot of indicators of what that means for our girls
as they become women and leaders.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Definitely, and through the years, I mean, the Girl Scouts
has been kind of a mainstay. We won't necessarily get
into how old I am, but it's been a long time.
But I went to Girl Scout camp and I got
all the way up into the juniors, and I loved
my time in the Girl Scouts. And you know, we'll
talk about the cookies in a minute, because people I
think no Girl Scouts probably best for the cookies, and
for good reason. Yeah, but you know, I loved selling
(03:50):
cookies because it gave me a sense of agency and
it taught me what it was like to handle money
right and to not necessarily be a business woman. But
in a way, you kind of are teaching these girls business.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, they're learning everything from just basic financial management and
how do you develop a plan for yourself, things like persistence.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Right, you will hear no from some people.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I know it's hard to imagine someone saying no to
a Girl Scout, but it happens, right, and you have
to bounce back from those no's and so all of
that in in addition to understanding how you run a business.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And one of the things.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
That I particularly love is that the troops, as they're selling,
they come up with a plan on how they're going
to use their funds and it helps fund their programming
for the year. So a lot of people may not
understand that the funds raised actually help support the troops
and then many activities that they will engage in over
the course of the year, and the girls get to
decide what they do.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
We have some folks to travel, we have.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I mean, just a broad range of activities, but it
all is aimed at giving them exposure.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Now, when it comes to the cookies, we have some
great flavors that have stood the test of time. If
you ask me, you got your things, so you got
your short brids critical if you ask me, I know,
half my newsroom would yelp me didn't mention the peanut
butter patties because that seems to be just like the
one that everybody's addicted to. But you've got some flavors
that come and go. So let's talk about those. What
(05:08):
are the flavor profiles we're looking at this year.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, so you're gonna have all of our classic ones,
the ones you mentioned but you didn't mention camera delights.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Cannot forget.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But we have Adventure Folds, which is more of a
brownie type, and peanut butter sandwiches for people who don't
want chocolate with their peanut butter, and lemonade for those
of us who like the more citrusy things. Are kind
of like one of your favorites.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Absolute favorite. I cannot I've already had like two packages
and I'm not ashamed.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Of They're delicious, and we do not forget our gluten
free and peanut free friends. So we have caramel chocolate
chip cookies as well. And the one that folks should
be concerned about if they love is toast. It's like
a spin off on cinnamon toast punch because it will
be retired. Oh no, our cookies freeze wonderfully. I don't
(06:01):
know if you know them, so I can put them
on ice cream and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
But better than the freezer. Yes, So now is the
time if you are a toast yer fan, bulk up,
cram that freezer full.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yes, folks, happened to me.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I mean we just launched on December third, and we're
gonna run through March seventh, so people have a little time,
but don't wait too long because they might slay off
the shelves.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, that's the thing I've noticed when it comes to
Girl Scout Cookies sales. I think that people assume that
all the troops are gonna have all the cookies throughout
the entire sale season. And yes, you can order online,
which we'll touch on in a bit, but you know,
you might want to go to your favorite Girl Scouts
house and be like, hey, can I have all your
toast yas And I'm like, no, my neighbor bought all
this sorry that what are you gonna do? You can't
(06:46):
wait on this stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
You can't wait.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
No, no, no, out door. And that is an enterprising
business woman, for what it's worth. If she's telling you that,
you know she's doing her job. So we're talking about,
you know, obviously selling the cookies, and let's talk about
how you know, it's not the same as it used
to be where they used to have to go like
door to door and knock on the door and like
please buy my cookies. Talk to me about how it's
like more of a modern sale these days.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, we definitely have more of a modern process and
we do a range of baby One, some girls are
still selling to their neighbors and friends through their through
what we call booths, so a lot of folks will
be familiar with going to the grocery store, the MBTA
station and seeing girls with the booth there. So we
(07:30):
do do some in person sells and new to those spaces,
you can now pay I believe by cash app and
Venmo and you can use your card, so previously we
only doubt in cash.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
You don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
We're trying to keep up at the times and make
sure we're able to support our girls and their enterprise
and all the ways. But we also have online sales,
so a girl could reach out to folks in their
network and say, hey, I'm selling cookies for my troop.
Here's what we're using it for, and here is my
personal link that you can use to purchase your cookies
(08:05):
online and I can have them ship directly to you.
So a wide range of options to really meet the
needs of all of our in beneficiary, those of us
buying cookies, but also to support to girls and in
many ways that they might need to engage in business.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That is phenomenal. And also, you know what is what
is somebody to do if they don't know a Girl Scout.
I mean, I don't know how they don't know a
Girl Scout. But if you don't know a girl Scout,
can you get cookies?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It is possible you can.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So if you don't know a Girl Scout, we would
encourage you to visit g S E m A dot
org okay or its lash Cookies and so that's Girl
Scouts to Best of Masks dot org or its Last
Cookies and then you can find where there's a cookie
booth in your area and you can or where there
is a local troop any area that you can connect with.
We're really encouraging people to support their local, their local
(08:55):
Girl Scout troops. Also for folks who may want to
give them a different way, we have Cookies for a Cause,
which is a program which you can also do online
where customers can make a purchase. You can do an
online or in person and decide to designate your purchase
to benefit a first responder, healthcare professionals as well as
(09:15):
military and veteran service organizations. Even local food pantries and more, right,
And so if you do not want to eat the
delicious cookies yourself, which I cannot imagine, I mean, you
can then give it to someone who has given a
lot of service and would also appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
So that's another thing.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
And if folks want to just stay informed about what
we're doing, they can text cookies to five nine six
one eight and they can learn much more about us.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
All right, that's really good information. And by the way,
we were talking about financial empowerment and how these girls
are learning fiscal discipline so on and so forth. Tell
me about your program with M and T Bank, because
I find this to be really interesting, essentially teaching girls
how to become more empowered in how they handle their
fund answers.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So it's a partnership with M ANDT Bank that we
just introduced, and so they are giving out a financial
empowerment patch.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So girls will go through this program.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
They'll learn the essential life skills of everything around financial
planning and budgeting, money management, and physical responsibility, which I
was someone had done for me before I went to.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
College, right, And where was this twenty years ago?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yes, when all the credit card companies come after you
in college so it's teaching them these skills and how
to be really physical managers on their own, including the.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Art of saving.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So we're really happy to have this partnership because it's
teaching girls a skill. They get to wear it with
honor as their patch, and it's just a wonderful partnership.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
That's one of the best things about being in Girl Scouts.
I hope it's still the way today because I remember
having had a vest and a head of sash, and
I remember just filling that up in the sense of
pride you get when you get a pin or you
get you know, your new patch or whatever, and you
can fill out all the little patch patterns. Oh my gosh,
it's the coolest feeling ever.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
It's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And the M and T partnership I think falls right
along with our Girl Scout Cookie program curricular because we
are we have a cookie business badge, a financial empowerment badge,
a cookie entrepreneur, family pen and entrepreneur badge. So we're
also trying to engage the entire family in some ways
around physcal management and how they teach their children to
(11:27):
engage in that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Well, yeah, you know, and we're dealing with inflation and
all these financial issues that a lot of families are
dealing with right now. So it kind of plays right
into that.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Too, it does. It does.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
And even though we're dealing with inflation, our cookies are
still priced at six dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
A package, so we're not going up there, but we're.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So we encourage you to even buy even more because
we're keeping our price the same.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I mean, if I needed any more of a drive
to go buy more Girl Scout cookies, I guess I'm
going to have to buy more to fuel the economies, just.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Steal the economy that's cooking. Oh I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Oh goodness. So you know, we'll touch back in just
a few minutes about how people can get those cookies
again to remind people. But you know, again, you're relatively
new to Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, and you've got
a lot of great ideas. You bring this great energy.
What's it been like kind of making your way into
into the Girl Scouts and what do you see for
the near future?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yeah, thank you. It's first of all, it's been wonderful.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I am now in week seven, almost too hard to believe,
but it's been a wonderful journey. I've had the opportunity
to connect with our many volunteers, and as you probably know,
our volunteers really support our troops and help us on
our programming and our big piece of what we do.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
And I've had the opportunity to kind of hear about.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
What they're doing, and see what they're doing, go through
training where they were, and just see how much they
are are really giving and understanding how many of them
are working for them to give that level of time
effort is just very selfless, and but it also speaks
to the value that they believe girls are getting out
of it, and that we know that girls are getting
(13:07):
out of it. So that's been a wonderful piece. And
then just to meet our girls of all ages, it's
it's just been phenomenal. The the creativity. I can see
the courage and confidence in them. They're willingness to approach
me as a CEO and ask questions and give me
their ideas and thoughts, which I welcome. Right they are
(13:27):
why we exist and so it provide creates that space.
And then just the son I am honored to work
with such a wonderful team in terms of my board
and my staff and so that's that's been wonderful as well.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
And so as I think about.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Where we are what we're doing, I'm really thinking about
how do we continue to grow our membership. There are
a lot of places where we still need to grow
a little bit, and so we're thinking about how we
shift to grow membership.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And even though everyone knows.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
About Girl Scouts, the number one answer when you ask
people about what Girl Scouts does is cookies. So yeah,
it's so much more, and so one of my big
goals is to really help people understand what Girl Scouts
does and what we stand for.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well beyond the cookies.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That's, you know, a wonderful program for our girls and
for the organization.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
But we do so much more.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Many of our girls who are able to stay with
us through high school, we are able to get college
scholarships because we give bronze, silver, and gold awards similar
to kind of like the ego Scouts, But people aren't
as familiar with that. So I'm looking to kind of
build that awareness and build our membership and get more
folks involved. And then we're thinking creatively about how we
(14:45):
use our spaces. We have some beautiful properties for folks
who are not familiar with real Scout camps. I have
been just floored going to our properties and want to
secretly want to move into one of those spaces because
they're so just calming and and beautiful. But we're thinking
about how do we get brought access to our spaces
for our communities as well.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I love all of that. And if somebody's just a
little bit, just a little bit, so somebody is listening
and they say, you know, I've kind of wanted to
get my child into Girl Scouts, or maybe they're a
younger listener who's in their teens and saying, hey, you know,
maybe this is something I want to do. How can
people connect with the Girl Scouts of Eastern mass Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So if folks go to g S e m a
dot org, you can go right online. You can if
you're interested in looking at what troops sign the area
that will be there listed, but also you'll find our
contact information. We're happy to support folks and making connections.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
And the cookies. That is the most important thing of
course again GS, well, no, it's not the most important thing.
Who am I kidding?
Speaker 3 (15:50):
It's one of the important things. It's like up.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
There, Top three women's empowerment and girls empowerment. That's number one.
But yeah, cookies is like two or three. But g
s e M a dot org slash cookies.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Correct, yes, last cookies. That gets your cookies.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You have to find your local troops who are selling,
to buy from a booth or to purchase online.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
All right, My final question, what's your favorite cookie? It's
then mit, okay, frozen or not frozen.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You know, I like them either way, but I do
like them frozen. They have a little bit more of
a Christopher sort of minty flavor.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. That's like my number two, a
frozen thin mint. Just you gotta have the lemonades first.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Lemonades is your number one, absolutely absolutely in my top
three though.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, it's up there.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
All right.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Well, you know, Monica is so good to meet you.
Thank you for all you're doing for our girls around
eastern Massachusetts. And good luck with the cookie sale. I
think you're going to do just fine, But good luck
as those cookies fly off the shelves.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Have a safe and healthy weekend, and please join me
again next week for another edition of the show. The
first of twenty twenty five I'm Nicole Davis from WBZY
News Radio on iHeartRadio