This year's Girl Scout cookies were distributed by the 10's of thousands on Saturday, and Girl Scout Kinzie Sauerwein, 9, didn't waste anytime hitting the sidewalks to make sales on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. Sauerwein and her parents got a primo spot in front of Terre Verde downtown on a beautiful day with tons of potential cookie buyers passing by.
Kinzie Sauerwein wants to one day attend the Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., and she has a plan to get there.
A Junior Girl Scout, Kinzie has been her troop's top cookie seller for the past two years, and she sees no reason why she can't pull off a three-peat.
"She's very driven," said Megan Sauerwein, Kinzie's mom. "Sometimes I have to rein her in, because ... I need my sanity."
As thousands of Girl Scouts across the U.S. kicked off this year's cookie-selling campaign on Sunday, Kinzie and her parents set up shop outside the Terra Verde boutique in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, the 9-year-old fearlessly making her pitch to scores of passersby on her quest for space camp.
"You can save up your credits to go almost anywhere," she said. "And I have always loved space."
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In the course of a typical season, Girl Scouts will sell more than 200 million packages of cookies nationwide, raising more than $800 million, according to data from Girl Scouts of the USA.
For her part, Kinzie hopes to sell upwards of 2,000 packages. It may sound like an ambitious goal, but she's done it before, her parents said.
"She sold 2,023 boxes her first year," her mother said. "Last year she got sick, so she only sold 1,600."
Less than a block away, in front of José Muldoon's Tex-Mex restaurant, Lily Smith of Troop 47179 was launching her own sales campaign. If she was troubled by another Girl Scout selling cookies a stone's throw away, she gave no sign, and on an unseasonably warm Sunday, there were enough potential customers to go around.
"It's really nice out today," said Smith, 12. "I've sold cookies in (below-zero) weather before. This is much better."
Smith's sales goal is even more ambitious than Kinzie's -- she hopes to sell 3,000 boxes -- and she plans to use her "cookie credits" to travel.
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"We've gone to California, we've taken a cruise, we've gone to Elitch Gardens," she said. "We've done some pretty cool stuff."
Lydia Briggs, 11, said she was an introvert when she joined the Scouts in kindergarten. On Sunday, she was anything but shy as she paced back and forth in front of Little Ceasar's Pizza in northeast Colorado Springs, calling out to passing cars with a small megaphone.
"It's cookie time!" she shouted. "Get your Girl Scout cookies here!"
One of the benefits of cookie selling, Briggs said, is that it has forced her out of her comfort zone.
"It helps shy people to become a little more comfortable taking to strangers and getting to know new people," she said. "I enjoy that part of it now. It's fun getting to meet new people."
Briggs is looking forward to taking a trip to California in October, she said.
"We're going to go to Disneyland," she said. "It's going to be a great time."
When the 2025 cookie season closes in a few months, it will bring the retirement of two favorites -- S'mores and Toast-Yay! Kinzie, Lydia and other Scouts said they were disappointed, particularly about losing the S'mores, but they don't think future sales will be affected.
"People love Girl Scout cookies," Lydia said. "That's not going to change."
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