Embracing My Journey ~ Living with passion & purpose!

Girl Scout "Thanks-A-Lot" Cookies

It’s Girl Scout cookie season again and I have to admit those brightly colored boxes lining the tables outside of the stores look absolutely inviting.  I know first hand that the cookies inside each of those boxes are as delicious as the description

on the outside promises.  Each year more and more people are delving into the $4 a box cookies with helpless abandon and devouring an entire box in just one or two sittings and quite frankly, who can blame them as the cookies are simply put, yummy in the tummy!

For those who remember my post from this time last year, I was approached by several moms who had daughters involved in the Girl Scouts and who had taken on the task of selling the cookies on their daughter’s behalf.  Now what I found interesting about this is that the organization provides the cookies as a fundraiser for the troops and yet the girls are not allowed to go door-to-door to sell them.  This leaves the parents setting up tables in front of stores and asking shoppers to make a purchase while the girls stand aside and watch the process unfold.  After several moms asked I finally relented and took a look at the cookies they were offering.  I settled on ordering a dozen boxes of the “Thanks-A-Lot” style and as I was informed it would take about a week to receive them I went to work on developing my “Thanks-A-Lot” list.

Whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate I don’t really know, but I am no longer able to eat the delicious cookies personally so I devised a plan to give away the cookies in the most creative of ways.  I went through my list of friends, business associates, neighbors, clients and relatives, picking out the 12 names that came to me as people I was really grateful to have within my life at this time.   My goal was to give a box of the cookies to each of these 12 people and let them know that it was my way of saying thanks a lot for being a part of my world.

The cookies arrived a week later as promised and I took my list and created little note cards, putting each one with a box of cookies into a gift bag and then began my journey.  I visited friends houses, schools, companies I do business with and even stopped by to visit a relative or two.  With each stop I said my hello and then handed them the bag, each time receiving a what’s this for? to which I responded it’s just because.  The smiles and hugs I received were beyond anything I had imagined as people were truly happy to hear that they were making a difference in someones life.  The warm feeling I had as I walked away from each person was truly a gift and a blessing.

As it is now Girl Scout cookie season again and on my counter the boxes are stacked, I have decided that this year I will up the ante and challenge others to do what I have done and to share their experiences as comments below.  The challenge: buy a box ( or 2 or 10) of the Girl Scout “Thanks-A-Lot” cookies, write a simple note and pass it on as a gift to someone you are thankful for within your life.  This is a great opportunity for parents to lead by example in encouraging their children to do this with teachers, friends, coaches, relatives and anyone else who has a positive effect on the child’s life.  Not only will the receiver enjoy the gift, but the giver will too!  Plus the Girl Scouts will benefit in that their cookie sales will continue to rise.

If you take me up on this challenge,  I’d love to hear from you.  Please be sure to post a comment or send an email to let me know about your experience.

In gratitude,
Caryn

Caryn FitzGerald is a motivational columnist, speaker and writer, she has been featured in and written several books, including “Tulips in the Sand: A Riley Matthews Mystery.”  Read more from Caryn at her website CarynFitzgerald.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Caryn's writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.