LONGMEADOW/EAST LONGMEADOW – The Longmeadow and East Longmeadow Girl Scouts are hosting a drive-thru cookie booth on Saturdays and Sundays at the Longmeadow Shops through March. 14 in the parking lot closest to the Longmeadow Athletic fields. They’ll be selling Samoas, Thin Mints, Do-si-dos, Tagalongs, Trefoils, Lemon-ups, Girl Scout S’mores and Toffee-tastics.

For more than 100 years, the Girls Scouts organization have been forming volunteer troops that start with kindergarten aged girls and allow them to develop leadership skills, build confidence, courage and character.

Due to the pandemic, the Girl Scouts organization didn’t want girls selling cookies the way they used to. They suggested that the girls try to advertise through selling cookies on the Girl Scout Cookie Finder app and then the drop off the cookies through contactless delivery to their buyers. Volunteer Beth Elam who runs the East Longmeadow and Longmeadow Girl Scout cookie sales reached out to the Shops and asked if they could set up a drive-through cookie at the Shops and they obliged.

“The girls are annoyed at COVID because it means they don’t get to see their friends all the time in school, so to have a piece of normalcy in their Girl Scout troops is wonderful,” Elam said. “It’s a little different having a drive through cookie booth this year, where people have to come to them. People who want to buy Girl Scout cookies have to look for the girls more than they used to. With the Girl Scout Cookie Finder app, finding a cookie sale becomes much easier.”

The Girl Scout Cookie Finder app will help anyone look up where they can buy cookies near them. They can enter their ZIP code or allow the app to find their location to find the closest cookie sales when and where there will be Girl Scouts selling near them. The app is available free in both Google and Apple online stores.

Elam has been a troop leader for 11 years. She has a 15-year-old daughter who’s a girl scout as well. For the past six years, Elam has been talking to local businesses to ask if the girl scouts could sell outside of their stores when they get around to girl scout cookies sales.

“Before COVID, we had several avenues for cookie sales,” Elam said. “Troops could sell online of course, girls could go door-to-door in neighborhoods and ask stores if they could set up a table out front and sell cookies. We did all of those things.”

She continued, “In Longmeadow, I have been the person who talked to businesses and coordinated with troops to sign up for times. It reduced problems for the businesses and it also made sure that all of the girl scouts knew when there were times available.”

Members Julianna Quinlan and Trevi Sandberg have been Girl Scouts since they were in kindergarten. They both expressed how COVID-19 has affected their ability to sell cookies.

“Most of our sales come from either door-to-door or cookie booths and we can’t really do either of those things,” Sandberg said. “Especially cookie booths because most of the stores that we would sell cookies at are closed like Armata’s Market is closed right now. Last year what we did is all the girls from our school we around to all the teachers, but we can’t do that this year because we’re all in different cohorts and some of us are online.”

Quinlan added, “We can’t stay after school and ask teachers if they like to buy some cookies because they just try to get the kids out. No one is there after school so it makes it harder to sell at school. Normally with the cookie money that we raise we go on a trip. Since we can’t really do anything like that this year, we’re going to save it up for a trip to Peru that we’re hopefully going to go in 2023 with the worldwide Girls Scout organization.”

Elam said they had to think of commercial locations that way the site would be plowed. The Girl Scouts Regional Council had asked them to look for parking lot areas that might not be heavily used, she asked places such as the school systems and churches. Then Elam approached the respective management firms for the Longmeadow Shops and the East Longmeadow Heritage Park Plaza. Both companies were “wonderfully responsive” Elam mentioned. Although no troops had signed up for the East Longmeadow location, all of the troops interested in selling through drive-thrus in Longmeadow are selling at the Shops.

“Management there at the Longmeadow Shops has been wonderful and very innovative in figuring out how this will work to keep the girls safe and yet allow them to sell cookies to earn money for whatever projects the girls have,” Elam said.

Melissa Pevay, marketing manager for the Longmeadow Shops/Grove Property Fund, said, “We are happy to help the local Longmeadow and East Longmeadow Girl Scout Troops this year. For years they have set up traditional cookie tables on the sidewalks at the Shops. This year in order to keep the scouts safe the organization recommends drive-thru sales. It’s a creative plan and we are pleased to provide the space for them.”

Sandberg added, “I don’t understand all the logistics of the drive-thru cookie booth yet, but people can drive through and buy cookies and it will be cool so that’s a fun thing.”

Quinlan mentioned a service on the Girl Scouts website called Digital Cookie where people can sign up, email their order and payment and the cookies are delivered at their house. Quinlan even said she’s already sold a couple of cookies this way. However, communities need to have a Girl Scout they know send them a link. They can go to the Girl Scout website and find out where the girl scouts are selling.

Given this is the first year the Longmeadow and East Longmeadow Girl Scouts are doing a drive-thru cookie booth, Elam said she’s happy outcome.

“This year there’s many more sales online than is typical,” Elam said. “When you’re selling online, the girls don’t have as much contact and therefore not quite the same experience practicing sales skills. I think that in-person sales is a valuable skill set to learn when you’re a kid, but I don’t want anyone to be endangered during this global pandemic.”

She concluded, “I think it’s great that we have options, that we didn’t have to stop fundraising because there’s a pandemic. Creating a drive-thru cookie booth in town is a wonderful opportunity. We have to wait and see how successful it is.”

For more information, contact Elam at bethelam@aol.com.