Girl Scout Emilee Salzman, 9, sold about 750 boxes of Girl Scout cookies during this year’s cookie sale. On May 21, Salzman joined 950 other cookie sale superstars and their guests for an exclusive sleepover at the Levi Stadium. The sleepover was a reward for Girl Scouts, associated with Girl Scouts of Northern California, who had sold at least 600 boxes (50 cases) of cookies during this year’s cookie sale. At the sleepover, Salzman pampered herself with a makeover and took pictures with the San Francisco 49ers’ Gold Rush cheerleaders while flashing red and gold pompoms brought from home.
“A key component of the Girl Scout cookie sale is goal setting,” says Nikki Van Ausdall, chief communications officer at Girl Scouts of Northern California. “The experience at Levi Stadium is just one example of a goal that girls set for themselves. This experience is particularly fun for girls who can celebrate their accomplishments with the family and friends who have supported them along their journey.”
Bobbie Soto, Salzman’s grandmother, is the leader of three Girl Scout troops from Westwood Elementary School, including Troop 60329 (Grades 2-3) and Troop 60241 (Grades K-1), where the Santa Clara girls interviewed here are based. As a former Girl Scout, Soto remembers going door to door to sell cookies as a child.
“Through the cookie sales, I learned to be more outgoing and to trust the buddy that I sold cookies with,” Soto says.
“My aunt’s friend owns an ambulance company in Sacramento,” says Salzman, sharing about one of her big orders. “For the last three years, she has bought two cases (12 boxes of cookies per case) of every single cookie I was selling. They put the cookies in the ambulance truck and would bring cookies to the hospital for the ER staff whenever they went to the emergency room.”
Also attending the sleepover was Gracie Giovacchini, 6. Giovacchini sold 879 boxes of cookies partly by attending her older brother’s baseball games. For example, once she went up and down the bleachers with a basket of cookies during a Santa Clara High School alumni baseball game at Washington Park.
“At the sleepover, we saw a football player’s uniform and we saw kids going to the prom who were at Levi Stadium,” Giovacchini says. “We went inside a bounce house, we raced people and I won.”
Another attendee of the sleepover was Lucy Nunn, 9, who sold 750 boxes of cookies. Nunn’s selling strategy included going door to door, visiting her parents’ workplaces and participating in five cookie booth events. At the sleepover, she remembers that most girls brought sleeping bags and rested in tents.
“There was a drawing wall with spray paint and a projector,” says Nunn, sharing another sleepover memory. “If you sprayed the paint on the wall, and the projector goes on it, a design would show up on a computer.”
Lucy Johnson, 9, sold 500 boxes of cookies at booth events. Although the amount she sold didn’t qualify her for the sleepover, her friend Nunn invited her to attend the sleepover as a guest. Over 1800 attendees of the sleepover came as guests of the recognized cookie sellers.
“We stayed up until 3:30 in the morning,” Johnson says. “Our troop leader Bobbie gave me some pompoms to wave around and then we did cartwheels on the football field.”
