RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — Tuesday marks National Girl Scouts Day as the organization celebrates its 107th birthday.
Beth Casey, CEO of the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council in W.Va. and parts of Ohio appeared on Tuesday’s “The Valley Today with Joe Stephens” on WMOV in Ravenswood, a MetroNews affiliate, to discuss the values and life lessons learned in Girl Scouts.
She said Girl Scouts still hold the same values they were founded on.
“Encouraging girls to get involved and do the kinds of activities that they weren’t doing and teaching them skills that weren’t the normal skills that they would be learning,” Casey said.
Casey’s daughter, Hannah, is a fourth generation girl scout. Casey said that her grandmother was her mother’s troop leader and her mother was her troop leader.
“It was a big thing in my town, she said. “All of my friends were doing it We had a great time but I stayed in it for the friendships and the opportunities it gave me.”
One of the big opportunities every year is the chance to sell Girl Scout cookies. The spring season marks cookie time as millions of boxes are sold and are being shipped nationwide. Casey said the selling of cookies is much more than just that.
“Girls learn so much and that is what we hear from adults in business now,” she said. “Communication skills, the learning to look people in the eye, how to say thank you, and how to make a pitch. All of those pieces are part of selling girl scout cookies but they are really important to make you be successful for the rest of your life.”
Casey said that if someone ordered cookies from a scout, they should be in and she added there is still a chance to purchase cookies. There is a cookie locator on the Girl Scouts website that shows any cookie booths near a location. All the money stays locally, according to Casey, except for the money used to pay the cookie company.
There are around 8,000 Black Diamond Girl Scouts in West Virginia.