Monday, May 31, 1999

Trail of cookies leads to capital

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Girl Scouts' sales fund trip to D.C.

BY AMY CAPPIELLO
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Fort Mitchell Detective Tom Loos fingerprints Alex Hitter, 9, of Fort Mitchell in preparation for the trip she and 27 other girl scouts are making to Washington, D.C. | ZOOM |

        FT. MITCHELL — It took a few years, but 28 Girl Scouts are proving that earning pocket change can lead to a substantial reward.

        After knocking on doors the past four years, Girl Scout Troop 629 in Fort Mitchell managed to earn nearly $5,000. They're rewarding themselves for all their hard work with a trip to Washington, D.C., next week.

        The troop earned the funds the traditional way.

        “Product sales,” troop leader Annette Restle said. “Nuts and cookies.”

        The girls, all students at Blessed Sacrament school, get only a share of the money made by selling the foodstuffs. For every $2.50 box of Girl Scout cookies, 35 cents made it to the bank. The nuts, which range in price from $3.50 to $8.75, garnered the girls $1 for each unit sold.

        According to Mrs. Restle, the girls didn't take the easy way out by setting up tables laden with cookies outside shopping malls or grocery stores and daring passersby not to buy them. Instead, they followed the tradition of the old-fashioned traveling salesman.

        “They've done it door to door,” Mrs. Restle said. “We've never done a booth sale. Just these girls, pounding the pavement.”

        Now they'll get to walk the streets of Washington, D.C., and see the national monuments they've always heard about. The group is boarding an Amtrak train early June 9 for the 14-hour trip to Washington. Once there, they will take a charter bus to a campground in Potomac, Md., and use two 15-passenger vans to travel to and from the subway station each day before returning early in the morning June 14. Except for food on the train and any souvenirs they would like to take home, everything is being paid for with the money the girls earned.

        Danielle Wurtz, 10, said she couldn't wait.

        “I'm really excited because I've never been to Washington before,” Danielle said. “We're going to see the White House, all the museums, and we might get to go to Arlington Cemetery.”

        Visiting the White House also appeals to 9-year-old Molly Schmidt. But she wasn't so sure about what she might encounter once she got there.

        “I'm excited because I'll get to see the president's house,” Molly said. “But I don't want to see the president.”

        Mrs. Restle's 10-year-old daughter, Hillary, said she was looking forward to the trip because of all the possibilities.

        “I'm excited because it's going to be a new experience,” Hillary said. “Going on a train is something I've never done before.”

        Besides the train ride and inevitable history lessons, though, Hillary said she couldn't wait for the giant slumber party that was sure to ensue.

        “You can order popcorn and Pepsi and stay up all night and party and drive the leaders nuts,” she said.

        As soon as they return from Washington, the girls will go right back to work preparing for their next big adventure — traipsing through Europe.

        Mrs. Restle estimated the troop would need about $7,000 to head overseas.

        By staying in Girl Scout-owned camps, they can cut their housing expenses to about $20 per girl for a weekend, she said. And after food, all they'll need is money for air fare and a rail pass.

        While most of the girls, all but two of whom are in the fourth grade, said they were excited about spending time away from home with their friends, they said they were also looking forward to bonding with some of the chaperones — their mothers.

        Most of the girls' mothers — all but five or six — are paying their own way to go on the trip with their daughters.

        “I have five children, so this is kind of nice to spend quality time with one kid,” said Meg Menne, mother of 9-year-old Mallory.

        “It's one-on-one time. I thought about sending her there by herself, but they'll be big before I know it.”

       

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