By Ceoli Jacoby

In past years, Girl Scout troops across the country made headlines after organizing cookie booths in front of medical marijuana dispensaries, liquor stores and correctional institutions. On Friday night, amid a bustling bar scene, Brownie Troop 22014 of Greenbelt set up shop in downtown College Park.

“I’m working from six to nine,” 8-year-old Naomi Donovan said. “If it were a school day, I’d be working till my bedtime.” 

Naomi’s mother, co-troop leader Katherine Donovan, said she doesn’t worry about the scenes to which her girls might be exposed while selling cookies to college students. 

“We leave before it really gets too wild,” she said. “Once in a while, we’ll get someone who’s just extra friendly and very interested in cookies.”

Troop 22014‘s business model is a proven success. Last weekend, after spending two hours across the street from Terrapin’s Turf, they sold roughly 200 boxes. Each box the girls sell means additional funding for activities like hiking, horseback riding and archery. 

Selling cookies also gives the girls a chance to work on their people skills and develop a sense of entrepreneurship. When they aren’t working the booths, the scouts of Troop 22014 are learning about budgeting, saving, and spending in pursuit of their Money Manager badges. 

When asked about her favorite flavor of cookie, 9-year-old Ciana Tehan-Pacheco could only narrow it down to her top three: Samoas, Thin Mints and S’mores.

“The S’mores kind of taste like the s’mores you eat on a camping trip, but the marshmallow is like a creme,” Tehan-Pacheco explained.

The younger Donovan, on the other hand, advises all of her customers to try the Lemon-Ups.

She also enjoys Adventurefuls: a salted-caramel-brownie-inspired cookie that was unfortunately missing from her booth due to a mixup at the bakery.

“They’re delicious,” Donovan said of the Adventurefuls, “and if you bite into them, it’s like rainbows.”

These days, a box of traditional Girl Scout Cookie flavors cost $5 per box — while the gluten-free flavors retail at $6 per box. The troop accepts payments in the form of cash, card, Venmo and Cashapp. 

Bella Connors, a sophomore majoring in environmental science and policy, stopped by the booth to buy a box of Thin Mints. A former Girl Scout herself, she was motivated to support the troop by a sense of nostalgia.

“I remember those days out in the cold,” Connors said, “and how excited I would get when I would make a sale.” 

Though it was bordering on freezing temperatures the night they were selling, the girls seemed excited to spend time with their fellow scouts. As a precaution against COVID, the troop only meets in-person when the weather is warm enough to sit outside. Since the beginning of winter, the troop switched over to Zoom meetings — meaning that selling cookies is one of the few activities that the girls can still enjoy side by side.

“It does get really cold,” Tehan-Pacheco said, “but it helps if you wear lots of layers and you don’t stand still.” 

“It is better when it’s warmer,” the younger Donovan added, “But only because more college students are out — and college students love cookies.”