With operations modified for the COVID-19 pandemic, local Girl Guides are hoping to bring some normalcy to the area this weekend.
Girl Guides will be doing a one-day sale of cookies at the Northgate Shopping Centre parking lot near Urban Planet on Saturday, April 3.
Traditional door-to-door sales of cookies have not been permitted this year due to COVID-19. In light of that, Girl Guides set up an online cookie ordering system, which Keri Taché, Administrative Community Leader for local Girl Guides, says didn’t quite get the results they had hoped for.
“I think people like getting cookies from a [Girl Guide] rather than online,” Taché said. “So we decided to have a one-day drive through COVID-friendly event.”
Taché says local Girl Guides currently have 100 cases of cookies that need to be sold, totalling around 1,200 boxes – all the chocolatey mint flavour.
Taché says cookie sales make up a large portion of the money that goes toward purchasing craft supplies, as well as trips and camps for guiders to take part in.
“It’s always good to fundraise for the future as well,” Taché said.“COVID-19 stop won’t stop the fun and friendship of guiding. It’s still a one-of-a-kind place where all the girls can connect and explore and lift each other up.”
Saturday’s cookie sale in the parking lot of Northgate Shopping Centre from 10 am to 6 pm, or until all of the cookies are sold. Sales will be cash only.
Aside from the impact on cookie sales, Taché says Girl Guide operations have otherwise shifted to the “new normal” with virtual and outdoor meetings.
“We still are able to provide the girls with the activities that they’re used to. It’s just a new way of doing it,” she said. “They’re enjoying what we can offer them and I know the girls are really partaking.”
