The Difference is in the Cookies

"Do you guys know where I can find a good Girl Scout?" I asked my American coworkers one day out of the blue. At the time, I was having a mad craving for some Carmel deLites (aka Samoas) but had no idea where (or should I say, from whom) to get them. They turned from their desks to give me the usual "Is this girl serious?" look, but then we all started doing research on how to find a local Girl Scout to get me some cookies (true story).

Having been a Girl Scout for many years during my childhood, I should have remembered that Girl Scouts only sell cookies during a certain time of the year, officially known as "Cookie Season." At that particular time, unfortunately, Girl Scout Cookies were not in season, so I had to settle for a Snickers.

Had I been smart, I would have thought to research when the Girl Guides, Canada's version of the Girl Scouts, sell their cookies. I had heard of Canada's Girl Guides before but thought they were just an identical version of the US's Girl Scouts that probably just copy everything the American Girl Scouts do. Wrong! True, they do have many similarities and common origins; however, they are not exactly the same and are actually completely separate entities, each with its own surprisingly rich and long history.

Canada's Girl Guides and America's Girl Scouts organizations were actually both inspired by a movement in England in 1909. According to the "History of Guiding" article on the Girl Guides Website, a British Army General, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, wrote a series of articles on scouting based on techniques he learned and used when fighting in the South African Wars. These articles were published in 1908 in some English boy's magazine, which inspired boys to start "scouting" on their own, engaging in activities that included stalking, tracking, first aid, and even stopping runaway horses and supposedly rescuing people from burning buildings (I sort of question the last one, but you never know). Anyways, these scouting activities became so popular by 1909 that a rally was held in London at which 11,000 boys turned up. To everyone's astonishment, a surprisingly large number of girls also showed up, "stuck it to the man" and demanded entry into the rally. Apparently these bad ass gals had also read the articles and had been scouting in secret. To make a long story short, even though scouting wasn't considered "ladylike" at that time in history, the General was nonetheless impressed by the girls and asked his sister to create a program just for them, thereby starting the Girl Guiding Movement. From that point on, the General's sister and wife relentlessly toured the country to promote the Movement wherever they went, even teaching girls how to bandage the wounds of soldiers during World War I! Canada's Girl Guides came into existence in 1910 (whereas the first American Girl Scout troop was formed in 1912) and many other similar Girl Guide/Scout troops popped up in various other countries around the world around that time as well.

To reduce the risk of continuing to be boring, I'm going to stop with the historical mumbo jumbo and just record my own observations from this point forward. From what I can tell, the Girl Scouts and Girl Guides operate on similar principles, engage in similar activities (camping, volunteering, arts and crafts, etc), and most importantly: they both sell cookies. However, when grocery shopping yesterday, Jeff and I came across some Girl Guides selling the aforementioned cookies. Upon leaving the grocery store, I whipped out my loonies and asked what kind of cookies they had. To my disappointment, they were only selling one variety: "Chocolatey Mint". Huh? No Carmel deLites? No Peanut Butter Patties? Apparently, Canadian Girl Guides only sell 3 varieties of cookies: Chocolately Mint, Classic Chocolate and Classic Vanilla. The picture above shows me holding the Chocolately Mint variety in their special 100th Anniversary box. Since this picture was taken about 15 minutes ago, I have sampled quite a few of these Chocolately Mint cookies, purely for the purpose of writing this blog post, of course. They're not bad, but they're no Thin Mint. According to the official US Girl Scout Cookie Website where you can "Meet the Cookies" and "See the Cookie Video", there are currently 11 different varieties of cookies, including a reduced fat cinnamon-flavored cookie called a "Daisy-Go-Round." Even though some varieties have been added, discontinued, or changed since I was a Girl Scout, there continues to be quite the range of flavors, whereas the Canadian Girl Guide cookies are kind of...well...boring (no offence Girl Guides).

However different the cookies may be, the missions of each the Girl Guides of Canada-Guides du Canada and the Girl Scouts of the USA organizations are essentially the same: to enable girls to be confident, resourceful and courageous in order to make the world a better place. For little girls, the seemingly-simplistic task of selling cookies takes each of those attributes to be successful (unless your parents just pass the order form around at work, which neither of my parents ever did, much to my benefit, even though I didn't look it that way at the time). I remember it taking a lot of courage to knock on some stranger's door in my dorky snowsuit and moon boots, introduce myself, and ask them to order cookies; however, I also recall how empowered I felt when I finally had that long list of orders, and at the end of "Cookie Season", that feeling of empowerment is all that mattered and is probably all that matters to the Girl Scouts and Girl Guides of today.