15-Year Old Girl Scout Is One Smart Cookie!

15-year old Jennifer Sharpe is one happy camper. She not only attained her goal of selling the most Girl Scout Cookies in her troop, but also nationally. In fact, while there are no official records, it is believed that her sale of 17,323 boxes is the most ever by one person in the 81-year Girl Scout cookie selling history.

The success didn't come easy though. Unlike most Girl Scouts who sell the cookies only on weekends, Jennifer and her mom, set up shop every single day of the season, including Sundays, for about four hours a day.

All the effort really paid off for Jennifer. Besides being honored by Girl Scout Officials, she has made making newspaper headlines and been invited to New York for a TV Interview by the Today show. The icing on the cake however, is that she and her troop # 813 have managed to raise enough money to take them on a ten-day trip to Europe later this year. Jennifer, who is normally a very shy girl, said that it was very easy to sell the cookies, simply because she loves them so much, especially the "Thin Mints".

The two-month Girl Scout Cookie fundraising season is an 81-year old American tradition that is looked forward to by both buyers and sellers. For buyers it means a once in a year chance to buy their favorite "Samoas' or "Thin Mint" Cookies. For the Girl Scouts, who receive a portion of the sales, it means money to spend on fun activities with their troops.

The fundraising efforts have come a long way since their humble beginnings in 1917, when the first homemade cookies were sold. Today over 200 million boxes are sold in the two month period, raising over $700 million U.S. Dollars for Girl Scout activites annually.