THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701210449
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 103 lines
SHE CRIES - you buy.
Two years ago, when she was 10-years-old, Beverly Harris was having a tough time selling her Girl Scout cookies.
She and some friends had a booth in front of Wal-Mart where they were smiling prettily as they asked for orders, but it was a negative time. Few were buying.
``Everybody was saying - I don't want any - I don't want any,'' said Dottie Harris, Beverly's mother. ``Kiddingly, I told the girls to start crying.
``I turned around and they had tears coming out of their eyes,'' Dottie said. ``The people were buying the cookies.''
Beverly explains how the tears began flowing like wine.
``I laughed so hard, I cried,'' she said.
There were no tears when she counted sales in 1995. She sold more than 300 boxes of the sweet fund-raising goodies.
Now, the 1997 campaign is under way and Beverly, like Girl Scouts across the nation, is making the rounds.
They are offering eight varieties, at $2.50 a box, including the new LeChip, a chocolate chip hazelnut cookie made with oatmeal and a chocolaty bottom coat.
Sounds delicious, but Beverly is not thrilled.
``It replaces the Juliette, and that was my favorite,'' she said.
Beverly, a 12-year-old John F. Kennedy Middle School seventh grader, is an only child, but not the only one in her family active in scouting.
Her mother is junior scout leader, cadet leader, cadet consultant, and cookie chairperson for the Suffolk Service Unit of the Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast.
The Council serves about 16,000 girls, between 5 and 17-years-old, sandwiched between Gloucester and Ocracoke on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Beverly's father, Ray, a Suffolk fireman who works out of Holland, is the registrar.
``The other registrar resigned. He was asked to take the job and accepted,'' Dottie said. ``He calls himself a 49-year-old registered Girl Scout - male.''
Ray said that accepting the position was a defensive move.
``When your wife is as involved as mine is, you have to get involved to find out what's going on,'' he said - ``or just don't answer the phone.''
The phone rings often, people calling with questions about scouting.
``It brings a lot of different backgrounds together,'' Dottie said.
``The best things about it are seeing some of my friends,'' Beverly said, ``and learning a lot of things - such as how to take care of and raise kids.''
That information could prove valuable for her in the future.
``I want to be a pediatrician,'' Beverly said. ``I want to go to college for about seven years.''
She has been in scouting seven years.
``The first thing I remember doing was making some Halloween pottery,'' said Beverly, who also remembers the year after year cookie sales.
Her parents also remember.
``Mom and daddy work hard,'' Dottie said. ``A lot of parents help their kids.''
Girls either go in pairs as they knock on doors, or the sales become a parent-kid thing.
And, there are booth sales in front of Wal-Mart - sometimes, complete with tears.
Whatever works.
The 1996 Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast cookie sales raised more than $2,100,000.
Proceeds help fund individual troop activities, maintain camps and properties, produce communications materials for parents and volunteers, and subsidize the cost of council events to help make scouting affordable.
In Suffolk, 350 girls in 32 troops participated in the '96 sales, selling nearly 32,000 boxes, many to friends and neighbors.
``My next door neighbor, Ronald Edwards, goes to Golden Corral a lot,'' Beverly said. ``He helps me sell cookies to employees there.''
Her approach is simple.
``I usually say `Hey, wanna buy some cookies?' '' said the upbeat youngster.
Beverly's best friend, Meghann King, 13, a Forest Glen seventh grader, has a low key approach.
``I'm shy,'' she said, ``and that sometimes hampers cookie sales.''
The cookie sale theme, during this 85th anniversary of girl scouting, is Dream Catchers.
There is a legend behind that idea.
``Catch your dream, set a goal,'' Beverly said. ``It's an old Indian legend - if you have a dream catcher it lets all the nightmares pass.'' MEMO: Girl Scout cookie sales, delivery and booth sales, continues
through March. To order by phone call 340-YUMM(9866). ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
Beverly Harris
JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
Officer John Brooks considers purchasing cookies from Girls Scouts
Megan King, center, and Carolyn Harris.
COOKIE HISTORY
The first cookie sale was held in the early 1920s in Philadelphia
when some children baked some shortbread cookies, selling them to
raise funds for their troop. The idea took a while to catch on but,
in 1936, it became a nationwide event.