Girl Scouts Face New Challenges, Opportunities As They Embark On Second Century

It's time once again to binge on Thin Mints and S'mores, as this year's Girl Scout cookie season is well underway. This marks the second century for the program, which teaches entrepreneurial skills while enabling the inner cookie monster in all of us.

But things have changed since the first Girl Scout Cookie sale in 1917. WFDD's Neal Charnoff spoke with Lane Cook, the CEO of Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont, and Reese Holder, a Girl Scout from Winston-Salem.

Interview Highlights (from Lane Cook)

On the Girl Scouts as an entrepreneurial training ground:

It's the largest girl-led business in the entire world....it teaches girls skills that are going to last a lifetime, such as goal-setting, decision-making, really strong money-management skills, people skills, how to talk to people, how to listen to their customers, and overall just strong business ethics and entrepreneurship.

On how cookie sales have evolved in the digital era:

This year's platform is new. It's called Smart Cookies. And it allows girls to really market their Girl Scout cookie sales digitally. They can reach out to their potential customers near and far through emails, and they can offer their customers either direct ship options or face-to-face delivery.

On the role of Girl Scouts in today's cultural and political environment:

What Girl Scouts is really all about is building really strong female leaders. And I think more than anything that's what we can do to solve the types of problems that exist in our political and cultural environment today.

And now for the important stuff...

A Non-Comprehensive List of Our Guests' Favorite Girl Scout Cookies (And Neal's Too):

• Lane Cook: Caramel deLites
• Reese Holder: Lemonades
• Neal Charnoff: Thanks-A-Lots