Have you ever purchased or tasted the infamous Girl Scout Cookies? For seventh grader Giana Castro, selling cookies is only the beginning of her duties as a volunteer troop with the Girl Scouts.

Only 13 years old, Castro has continued to participate in the Girl Scouts Troop #697 for eight years. From early January to late April, the Girl Scouts continue to work throughout the community by raising money for their club by selling cookies and volunteering with local service projects.

Having the opportunity to follow in her sister, Nikki’s footsteps, Castro quickly joined the club at the nearest, most convenient place: her school. Even as the club transferred to another location, she continued to pursue the organization.

“My sister started being a Girls Scout when she was six or seven,” Castro said. “I originally started at my old school, which had their own Girl Scout troop club. When I found out that I could join, I started as soon as I could, which was when I was a Daisy around five years old, and I have continued with it for eight years. When the club moved from the school, it grew to around 30 girls.”

Not only does Castro herself participate with the Girl Scouts, but her family have become major supporters for her. Since her mother, Francina Castro, has only been the troop leader for a short period of time, she has become more associated with the organization and the leadership role.

“Recently, my previous troop leader retired so my mom stepped up to take her place,” Castro said. “Now she has become a lot more involved and helps us sell cookies. My mom posts stuff on Facebook so lots of people get to hear about ordering cookies and supporting the club.”

As well as selling cookies, the Girl Scouts push themselves to achieve awards for their efforts in the club. Earning awards is a group participation, so in order to receive medals for their accomplishments, they must all earn it together.

“Right now my troop is working on getting our Silver Award,” Castro said. “I’ve already received my Bronze Award and after the Silver Award we have our Gold Award which is equivalent to an Eagle Scout award for a Boy Scout.”

Over the weekend, the Castro family drove their car to the Save Mart Center to pick up the cookie orders for the Girl Scouts. With each station having a different cookies, the Castro’s gathered all the cookies needed to sell for this year.

“Last Sunday, we went to the Save Mart Center and drove our car around to a team of people at stations that had different cookie types,” Castro said. “With our calculations of cookies that we wanted, we picked up the cases from the correct stations. Right now my family placed the cookies are in our entry way and living room and there are so many cases that they are stacked to the ceiling.”

Castro has had many opportunities to meet with other scouts in several different clubs locally. Besides selling boxes of cookies, she is able to experience new adventures with her friends.

“Some of my favorite parts being involved with Girl Scouts is having the opportunity to do activities with other girl scouts in our community,” Castro said. “It’s fun selling cookies with the other girls or going camping; we get to meet a lot of new people.”

With the Girl Scout cookies being so popular, first-come, first-serve can sometimes apply for the customers wanting to purchase cookies. For some people, ordering first is the best option for getting the cookies that you want.

“One time when we were selling cookies in front of Sam’s Club, this guy came and bought 30 boxes of thin mints on the first sale of the day,” Castro said. “We were out the rest of the day and since it’s everyones favorite our costumers kept asking about purchasing them but we didn’t have anymore so everyone got pretty mad because that one guy bought them all.”

A way to continue keeping up the interests for the consumers, the producers switch out a few of the cookies yearly, replacing them by creating new recipes of cookies. By exchanging the cookies, people have a mixture to choose from.

“There are eight different varieties of cookies,” Castro said. “Each year the company takes out a cookie and replaces it with a new one. Last year they took away the Daisy Go Rounds and were exchanged for Mango Cremes.”

With only four girls in the troop now, the team has lowered their aim so that the Girl Scouts can reach the goal even with a smaller group of people. Even thought the group is limited, the girls still believe that they will be able to sell every box.

“Between my sister and I, we have probably sold around 1000 individual boxes of cookies,” Castro said. “This year the Girl Scouts have set our goals lower for the whole troop. This year we want to sell 250 boxes each and we hope to sell all of them.”

When the club comes to the end of April and some of the cookies have not been purchased, the Girl Scouts have to individually pay for the money that is left over. There are times when the prices can increase to high amounts, so the team desperately tries to sell all 85 cases of cookies.

“When the Girl Scouts don’t sell all of the cookies, the troops themselves have to pay from them,” Castro said. “It gets kind-of expensive when we don’t sell them all, so we do our best to sell as many as we can.”

Even though Girl Scouts can be a fun activity, Castro has taken away lessons that will help her in her future. Since joining, she has seen a difference in herself as while as her attitude.

“I’ve been involved with Girl Scouts, sports and musical theater for as long as I can remember,” Castro said. “Girl Scouts has been a pretty big part of my childhood, it has taught me a lot if helpful traits. I’ve developed skills that will stay with me for the rest of my life. For example, I’ve learned to set a goal and achieve it. Girl Scouts has also taught me people skills and business ethics. Since joining, I’ve seen more of a leader in myself.”

Not only is Castro involved in the Girl Scouts, she is also pursuing another one of her interests: musical theater. Being on stage and in front of people has helped with her with speaking with people and running the booth in Girl Scouts.

“Since I was four, I have been involved with an acting agency, and from when I as six, I have been involved with musical theater,” Castro said. “At eight I have been taking voice lessons. My whole life has benefitted from theater in several ways. My confidence and social lability has increased.”

Castro has participated and had roles in different commercials and movies that were held and filmed in the Fresno community. Through the theater company, Children’s Musical Theaterworks, she has received opportunities to look into the benefits of theater and video.

“I have done several Fresno commercials and movies when I was younger,” Castro said. “When I was nine, I was cast in a movie filmed in Fresno called Finding Hope Now. I have been cast in 11 productions with Children’s Musical Theaterworks and I have crewed about four.”

While filming for a movie in Fresno, Castro has had the chance to meet famous people in the acting business. By having this advantage, she is able to interact with actual people and get a feel for what it is like in the industry.

“I’ve met many talented people such as Avan Jogia and Michael Baddulucco,” Castro said. “It was a really good experience for me and a lot of fun. I also take part in several musical theater productions each year. I enjoy performing in theater more than anything I do.”

By being a Girl Scout, her classmates at school are able to support the program buy ordering a box of cookies from her. Making appearances throughout the Fresno and Clovis community, the Girl Scouts are able to sell more of their cookies because of the popular and well-known labels.

“The troop just travels around Fresno and Clovis to booth sales,” Castro said. “We try to sell everyday to our friends at school and we mainly do booth or door-to-door sales on the weekends. My friends and classmates ask me for cookies because they know I’m a Girl Scout. Recently, I sold a box of cookies to one of my friends because she saw the boxes that were piled in my car.”

Those who wish to purchase Girl Scout cookies from Castro can do so by calling 559.940.9303 or let her know at lunch or after school.

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