Girl Scouts don’t just peddle cookies. They also calculate profits, make budgets, set goals for spending their money and learn to be careful consumers.
When the girls in Connie Willegal’s Girl Scout troop in Waukegan decided to take a trip to Springfield last year, they got on the phone and comparison shopped for a hotel. They took out maps and calculated mileage and travel costs.
They determined the cost for meals and activities so they could make a budget for the trip. And instead of opting to use Willegal as the designated banker for the trip, they all handled their own money. Nobody ran out of cash by the third day.
“Actually, we came back with $60,” Willegal said, “and everyone was proud we’d stayed within our budget. It was a great way for the girls to learn what things cost. With much of the teaching we do in Girl Scouts, we let them make a lot of the decisions, and that’s true of the money things we teach, too.”
Willegal remembers her scouts were surprised on the trip by how much the food cost in a decent, sit-down restaurant and also by how much waitresses depend on tipping as opposed to a salary.
Willegal’s girls earned money for the trip through product sales such as cookies or through personal earning; for example, a few of the girls held their own garage sale to raise money.
Said Willegal, “It’s not just, `How much money can we make?’ It’s `How can we get to this goal?’ “
Girl Scout leaders said they teach money skills partly because it’s an area parents sometimes neglect and also because it’s such an important life skill.
“Our mission as troop leaders is to help girls become productive, happy citizens,” said Hanover Park troop leader Georgia Nelson. “And learning about money is part of that. It’s a skill everyone needs in life.”
