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Hazelwood Girl Scout Tops in Metro-wide Annual Cookie Sales
Laura Adams, a Girl Scout Senior in Troop 3186, sold 2,036 packages or more than $8,100 worth of Girl Scout Cookies this year, earning top individual cookie seller honors.
Like postal carriers, Adams doesn’t let rain, heat or gloom of night deter her from her appointed rounds in Hazelwood. “If the US Postal Service can deliver, Girl Scouts can, too,” she said. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to get there [to 2,000].’ Customers have to buy and I want to set that goal.”
Goal setting is one of the five skills Girl Scouts learn from selling cookies that they can use for the rest of their lives. Adams sold about 1,850 Girl Scout Cookie packages in 2013 and this year, she told herself she would break the 2,000 mark. The other skills girls learn are decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.
“I walk so many streets and knock on every single door,” said the sophomore, who attends Hazelwood West High School. “When people answer, I tell them who I am and what I’m doing.”
Adams said her grandmother, Carole Babb, walks with her but it’s Adams who does all of the selling. If no one answers, Laura makes sure she leaves one of the thank-you cards she created on or near the door. She also creates and sends thank-you notes to customers who reorder from her.
If a prospective customer declines to order she simply responds with a “Thank you” and moves on to the next door. Her sales onsistency has paid off in more ways than one.
“If I don’t walk down my street during cookie season, the neighbors knock on my door to ask if I’m selling cookies this year.”
After last year’s cookie sales, Laura took part in this year’s Girl Scout cookie commercial and she was invited to take part in filming the movie, “Marshall the Miracle Dog.”
Besides her Girl Scout participation, Adams also collects canned goods and volunteers for The Emergency Assistance Ministry or T.E.A.M. Food Pantry, located in Florissant. Her school district requires students to complete 50 hours of community service prior to graduation; she met that number last year as a freshman.
She hopes to become a pediatric oncologist and she is attempting to get a cheerleading scholarship at a school that offers a pre-medical program, such as Washington University in St. Louis.
