http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/224010/3/Ohio-scouts-boycotting-door-to-door-cookie-sales–
AKRON — Some Girl Scouts in northeastern Ohio are refusing to go door-to-door selling the organization’s familiar cookies to protest a decision to close four scout camps in the Cleveland area.
The protesters include 14 out of 16 members of a troop in Aurora, east of Cleveland. Marie Cassidy told Channel 3’s Eric Mansfield that troop members will baby-sit or do other jobs to earn some of the money needed for scout activities rather than sell cookies, which is time-consuming.
Cassidy said they will still sell cookies to people who request them. Scouts earn $.60 for each box sold for $3.50, so it takes a while to earn a large enough amount to make a difference for the troop. She said the girls in her troop don’t see the value in selling cookies if the majority of profits go to salaries for full-time girl scout leaders.
The Girl Scouts’ Northeast Ohio council has made the tough decision to sell the camps for financial reasons and because of the upkeep required to maintain the aging camps.
Officials have said selling the four camps would provide money for improvements at others.
Devonna Brazier leads a troop of nine first graders in Akron and said her troop will go ahead with cookie sales as planned. She said that she used the camps when she herself was a girl scout, and she recognizes that the money needed to maintain the camps makes it tough to keep it open. She said she is pleased that the scouts as an organization have strong leadership to maintain programs.
