LITTLE ROCK — So last week, I participated in my first-ever Cookie Drop.
This, my friends, is the day that an 18-wheeler pulls up to the National Guard’s Fisher Amory and - after lots of nice guardsmen have used forklifts to unload several thousand cases of Girl Scout cookies - troop leaders and parent volunteers scurry into action.
One word: Wow!
We sorted cases by cookie type, arranged them in designated areas, five cases high, 10 deep.
Then a service unit leader drew troop numbers.
The first four troops selected hurried to their assigned stations. After determining who would get which cookies to fill a troop’s order, everyone took off, some with dollies. Those whose troop numbers weren’t drawn helped fill the other leaders’ orders.
Once an order was completed, cars and trucks backed up to the armory’s doors and we piled each vehicle high with cases. (Each case holds 12 boxes of cookies.)
My troop’s order filled my husband’s Chevy Silverado - both the back of the truck and the cab - and my Ford Escape.
So how efficient is this whole process? It took three hours, from the moment the truck pulled up to when the last of the troops departed. I’d say that’s pretty impressive.
If you’d like to see photos of this year’s event, go to arkie.littleockmamas.com.
There’s much more to Girl Scouts than cookies, however.
Today’s Girl Scout is learning to be a leader, to get involved in her community, to be a productive member of society. The girls are encouraged to make decisions as a troop. For example: They will decide how they want to use the money they’ve earned from cookie sales.
Our troop’s plans this spring include planting and tending a patch in the Argenta community garden, donating supplies and our time to a local animal shelter and doing a service project for the church where we hold our meetings.
As a service unit, we help raise money for the Ronald Mc-Donald House. We send coupons to overseas military families. We make cards for nursing home residents.
We do a lot of just-for-fun things too: Fall Fest, Muffins With My Mom, Cookies With the Mayor, the father-daughter Mardi Gras dance and the Cookie Rally.
The latter was my favorite thus far, not just because of the activities and concessions, but because of the disc jockey who played lots of danceable music.
I did the macarena for the first time since my 20s. Onlythis time I was stone-cold sober. And the dance floor was packed with young girls, teens and other uninhibited mothers who like to rock out to Disney and ’70s hits.
In June, we’ll be heading off for Troop Core Camp, where the girls will learn the basics of several outdoor activities.
We’re about to start recruiting potential Girl Scouts for next year. I encourage you to register your daughters. I also encourage you to become troop leaders.
It’s been so rewarding,watching once-shy girls blossom into leaders and listening to the chatter of my more talkative crew.
I love the way they’ve given me entree into their non-Brownie world, that they trust me with tales of what goes on in today’s elementary schools. (Don’t worry, it’s nothing scary!)
And I love seeing the results of what scouting entails, that the girls truly do understand what it means to be “a sister to every Girl Scout.”
At our elementary school’s Christmas party last year,someone accidentally threw away my daughter’s candy cane. Disappointed, Tootie struggled not to cry.
Within minutes, one of my Brownies, who happens to be in Tootie’s class, walked over, hugged my daughter and offered to give Tootie her candy cane.
And at that moment, I knew for sure I was onto something really, really good.
Cathy Frye, a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has two stepteens and two children, ages 5 and 7. Also a husband. She and Cindy Murphy are coeditors of LittleRockMamas.com. E-mail her at
Family, Pages 31 on 02/23/2011