Sales of Girl Scout cookies turn 100 this year, and for some of Little Rock’s best peddlers of Thin Mints, Samoas and Trefoils, the milestone was like a trip back in time.

Their particular time machine was a collection of vintage uniforms at the Girl Scouts-Diamonds center off Rodney Parham Road, where outfits dating back decades emerged from display cases for the girls to wear at a photo shoot.

Maddie Rowe, 11, a sixth-grader at Pinnacle View Middle School, models a 1930s-vintage dress uniform. Maddie’s grandmother, Margo Rowe, was a Girl Scout and proudly kept her sash.

Alyssa Joseph, 13, one of central Arkansas’ top cookie sellers since 2013, models a 1940s-era Girl Scout uniform that she describes as “classy, very unique.” A student at North Little Rock Middle School, Alyssa belongs to Troop 6659, which meets at St. Mark Baptist Church.

Alyssa Joseph, 13, showed off a green number from the 1940s, throwing her arms wide and indicating that, yes, she would be proud to wear it to North Little Rock Middle School. “I think it’s classy, very unique.” Alyssa was the Diamonds’ top cookie seller for several years, averaging 1,000 boxes or more or more each year since 2013, but she finished second last year.

Proceeds from the Scouts’ signature fundraising effort — they sold 194 million boxes nationwide in 2015, about $776 million in sales — go to finance troop activities and for community service projects ranging from care packages for a children’s cancer center to earthquake aid in Haiti or help for those hit by Superstorm Sandy in the United States.

Alyssa, who belongs to Troop 6659, which meets twice a month at St. Mark Baptist Church, said she had lessons in cookie-selling from her sister, Aliyah, now 21, who was also a Do-si-dos-selling champ. “I like volunteering,” Alyssa said. “I like participating in the coat drive and the clothes drive for kids. And of course I like selling the cookies.”

Maddie Rowe, 11, said her grandmother Margo was a Girl Scout and proudly still has her sash, and her mother, Tiffany Rowe, is a troop leader. Maddie smiled in a light blue ensemble from the 1930s. “It’s awesome,” she said. “I want one of these.”

A sixth-grader at Pinnacle View Middle School in Little Rock and a member of Troop 6856, Maddie had her hair curled in a 1940s style for the photo shoot. She said the keys to selling cookies are smiling “and using a lot of manners.” Her favorites are the Samoas, but she sells more Thin Mints, the national favorites. Samoas are the top sellers in Little Rock, as well as Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff and Texarkana. Fayetteville holds out for Thin Mints, according to Taylor Fisher, communications specialist with Girl Scouts-Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the council that runs Arkansas’ programs.

Madison Teeter, 12, says she loves Tagalongs best. A member of Troop 6856, she is seen here in uniform from the 1950s or ’60s. Her favorite Girl Scouts activities are being with friends and helping others. “Selling cookies is fun, too!”

Jordan Findley, 7, knows the best thing about Girl Scout cookies. “They taste good!” Jordan, an honor-roll second-grader at Williams Traditional Magnet School in Little Rock, wore a 1970s-era jumper with a shamrock-print blouse.

What’s the best selling point? Jordan Findley, a serious 7-year-old who eventually loosened up after eating a cookie, didn’t hesitate. “They taste good!” Her mother, LaShawn Kelley, brushed a few crumbs off her 1970s-era uniform as Jordan, an honor-roll second-grader at Williams Magnet, described activities in Troop 6659.

People have been loving Girl School cookies, and sometimes running from them to preserve a diet, since a troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, came up with the idea of selling them in 1917. That was only five years after Girl Scouting was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and 10 years before Girl Scouting got its start in Arkansas.

Commercial bakers started helping the Girl Scouts meet a growing demand in 1936, and sales were going coast to coast by the next year. When rationing during World War II made sugar and other supplies scarce, Arkansas Girl Scouts sold calendars and war bonds. They also aided in the Victory Fund Campaign, largely marketed by the M. M. Cohn Co., which encouraged Girl Scouts to buy War Savings Stamps. That Girl Scout commitment to serving others continues. Jillian Coldiron, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Pinnacle View and also a member of Troop 6856, said she enjoys singing at local nursing homes.

Cookies go on sale online and through the girls themselves on Jan. 21, and booth sales — many at local grocery and big box stores — begin March 11, Fisher said.

Jillian Coldiron, 11, may hold a vintage book on Girl Scout leadership, but her uniform of white shirt, sash and khakis is fully modern. A member of Troop 6856, she is also a sixth-grader at Pinnacle View Middle School.

History of the Girl Scout Cookie


1917 The first known cookie sale by Girl Scouts begins in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
1922 Cookie sales get a boost when a special sugar cookie recipe is published in The American Girl magazine.
1924 Babe Ruth, who had a prodigious appetite, helps to promote the Million Cookie Drive at the World Series.
1933 Girl Scouts begin marketing what are specifically called Girl Scout Cookies in Philadelphia.
1944 Facing the World War II shortage of ingredients like eggs, milk, sugar and chocolate, Girl Scouts adapt by selling calendars and helping in the war effort by selling bonds.
1952 Ebony magazine notes that Girl Scout cookie sales, open to all races, are helping to make "slow and steady progress toward surmounting the racial barriers" of the American South.
1959 Thin Mints make their official debut, although some troops had sold chocolate mint cookies known as Cooky-Mints since 1939.
1969 More than 100 Girl Scouts use cookie-sale proceeds to travel to Florida for the launch of Apollo 12, the second NASA mission in which astronauts landed on the moon.
1970 Girl Scouts help celebrate the very first Earth Day by collaborating in environmental action programs, and cookie packages reflect the trend by featuring outdoor activities on redesigned boxes.
1996 A Maryland troop uses its cookie earnings to go to the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
2015 Girl Scouts take the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in debuting the Digital Cookie, becoming one of the first youth organizations to run a booth at CES.