By Nighthawk News
The final bridge approaches, the other side now in sight. One Girl Scout left in the troop, one goal in mind. For some, selling 3,000 cookie boxes might sound impossible. But for senior Autumn Sailor, this will be a Toffee-tastic time where her supply will hopefully never run Thin as more people in the community Tagalong on her cookie journey.
With how much of a deLite Sailor is, it shouldn’t be hard.
“You see happy faces when you sell cookies,” Sailor said. “Cookies bring joy to people.”
Sailor has been bringing the joy of Girl Scout cookies to people for 15 years, and for the last few years has taken the Outer Banks by storm with her cookie-selling statistics. Visits to neighbors. A table outside of Walmart. Posts on social media. Taking the ferry to Ocracoke for a day of sales.
She can even be seen strolling down the hallways of First Flight High School with a wagon full of cookies, selling class to class.
“They’re awesome. It’s my biggest weakness, really – I have good willpower about most things,” Carpentry teacher Brian dePedro said. “I buy a case of Thin Mints, because if I buy more than a case, my wife will kill me.”
Selling to her loyal teacher customers is convenient during the school day, but reaching the larger Outer Banks community can take up almost all of Sailor’s time after school and on the weekends. She’ll be selling at popular storefronts such as Walmart from 11 to 3 on Saturdays in January and February.
Follow this link to order cookies directly from Sailor’s Girl Scout site!
Selling cookies box by box seems simple enough, but the logistics of cookie sales is more complex than people might think. Every year, Sailor needs to order the amount of cookies she thinks she will need, haul over 2,000 boxes to her house, sort each case of cookies by flavor, and prep the large amount of pre-orders to distribute.
“(I keep them all) in a spare room. Cases and cases – the amount of boxes we get is insane,” Sailor said.
One of the biggest helps to Sailor and her cookie-selling endeavors has been her mom, Danielle Vena. Other than sacrificing an entire room of their house to cookies, Vena has served as Sailor’s troop leader for years and loyal cookie taxi cab.
“My mom has actually forced me to stay in it this long, which I really do appreciate, because you don’t see a lot of Girl Scouts sticking it out through the end,” Sailor said. “But it has a lot of rewards for staying that long.”
Sailor has also been able to enjoy close friendships through Girl Scouts with her former troop members, such as Vada Clark and Shelby Meredith, as she has “crossed the bridge” from one Scouting level to another over the years.
“We get to call each other sisters, even if we’re not related,” Sailor said. “It’s like we’re a big family.”
When it comes to cookie sales, though, some of those family members happen to be Sailor’s own competitors – just a few feet shorter. Sailor hopes to be an inspiration to the younger members of other local Girl Scout troops, even if those cute little Brownies do tend to have an easier time selling cookies.
And because she is the last member of her troop – meaning it will die after she graduates – Sailor has lots of advice for all the younger Girl Scouts in the area after 15 years.
“Stick with it, even if it’s annoying. Encourage your friends to stay, too, because it’s much easier when you have somebody that you like hanging out with to make it fun,” Sailor said. “Do more camping, go on more trips. Since you’re a Girl Scout, you get special access to things.”
And, of course, sell all the cookies you can! Having sold thousands of boxes of cookies over the years comes with cool patches for her uniform, but also great prizes like an overnight stay at the Georgia Aquarium and behind-the-scenes tour of the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
Girl Scouts also has taught Sailor lessons of kindness, compassion, communication, budgeting, and more, she said. And when it comes to cookie sales, not everybody says “yes,” so she’s even learned how to handle rejection and adversity. Some of the most common responses she’ll get include “I’m on a diet,” “the Thin Mint cookies aren’t so thin,” plus “I’ll be back later” or “I’ve already bought some.”
For one final cookie season, though, Sailor will be going all out on this last Adventure, ready to Exploremore ways to reach her sales goal, and doing a final Do-si-do around the school with that wagon full of goodness.
“It’s my last year, so I might as well go big,” Sailor said.
This story was reported and written as a group project in the second-semester Newspaper class.
