Cookie sales crumbly, hindering Girl Scouts

A decline in Girl Scout cookie sales forced some employee layoffs, but the local council still plans to help girls needing financial assistance to go to camp this summer.

By GREGORY A. PATTERSON, Star Tribune

Last update: April 10, 2009 - 12:12 AM

Not even the venerable Girl Scouts can escape the recession.

The organization serving the metro area and southern Minnesota said a 6 percent decline in this year's recently concluded cookie drive and an 11 percent drop in overall revenue prompted layoffs recently for 13 employees.

"We're definitely not immune to the current economic climate, and we're taking proactive steps," said Lisa Hiebert, spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys, the local branch of the 97-year-old organization.

Local leaders looked at many cost-cutting alternatives in addition to the layoffs, said Tisha Bolger, chief financial officer of the River Valleys unit. The organization froze salaries for its remaining 150 employees, suspended matching contributions to retirement savings plans, and decided to idle two of its seven camps this summer. The layoffs included full- and part-time employees.

The organization was careful to save programs and services during its current restructuring, Bolger said.

Serving about 45,000 girls and including 18,000 adult volunteers from the Twin Cities to the Iowa border, the regional Girl Scouts council said it's also continuing to raise money to help many more girls who are seeking financial assistance to go to camp this year.

"Last year we gave over $130,000 in 'camperships.' This year our goal is to do over $200,000, because we know the need is greater," Hiebert said. Camp is an important nature-based experience for the girls, the organization says.

Camp Greenwood in Buffalo and Camp Sanderson in Spicer will be idle this summer, but there's still room for many girls at the remaining camps, officials said. Currently, camp registrations are running about 1,000 behind last year, when the organization played host to 6,000 girls.

The River Valleys unit, which also includes four counties in western Wisconsin, traces its current financial difficulties to the drop in cookie sales, which provide some 57 percent of its annual operating revenue of about $15.4 million, and to an even sharper drop of about 20 percent in individual contributions. Corporate donations have held steady, officials said.

Through Wednesday, the River Valleys Girl Scouts said they sold 4.4 million boxes of cookies this year, some 300,000 boxes short of their initial goal. Hiebert said there were about 400 fewer girls selling cookies locally this year.

Nationally the numbers won't be known until late next month, but the organization typically sells 200 million boxes of cookies annually, providing $700 million in revenue.

Gregory A. Patterson • 612-673-7287

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