Girl Scouts are selling cookies in Pacific Beach

If you have not been approached by a Pacific Beach Girl Scout to buy cookies, that knock could soon be coming to your front door.

Girl Scouts throughout San Diego County started their annual door-to-door campaign on Jan. 30. Their booth sales in front of local stores will launch on Feb. 11. The cookie sale will conclude on March 13.

Among those selling cookies is Senior Girl Scout BellaRose Uhrig. This is her 10th year participating in the Girl Scout Cookie Program and 11th year in the organization.

The 15-year-old Pacific Beach resident and La Jolla High sophomore has a long family history in scouting and the community. She is the fifth generation of her family to live in the Pacific Beach/La Jolla area.

She is also a third-generation Girl Scout. The tradition started with her maternal grandmother, Caroline Linda Thompson, who was a Girl Scout in the 1950s while attending Pacific Beach Elementary, Muirlands Middle School and La Jolla High.

Likewise, her mother, Jessica Uhrig, was also a Girl Scout and she led her daughter’s troop since its members were Daisy Girl Scouts in kindergarten.

While BellaRose Uhrig and some of her fellow troop members switched to Independent Girl Scout status two years ago after attending troop meetings became too difficult once they ended up at different middle school and high school campuses, she said they still get together to do scouting activities as often as possible.

Independent status is a way for Girl Scouts to continue in the organization when active troop membership becomes challenging due to their increasingly busy schedules and other reasons, such as declining interest by peers during the teenage years.

Even though she is an Independent, Uhrig said she plans on participating in booth sales and traditional cookie selling. The latter will have her walking around Pacific Beach with a wagon filled with the nine cookie varieties being sold this year.

Adventurefuls is the new cookie flavor offered for $5. It is described on the council’s website as “indulgent, brownie-inspired cookies with caramel flavored crème and a hint of sea salt.”

Also available for $5 a box are five longtime favorites — Thin Mints (chocolate mint), Samoas (caramel, coconut and chocolate), Tagalongs (peanut butter and chocolate), Trefoils (shortbread) and Do-si-dos (oatmeal peanut butter sandwich). Also returning is Lemon-Ups, a lemon cookie with inspirational message that debuted a couple years ago.

Two returning specialty cookies are $6 per box. They are Toffee-tastic (a buttery cookie with toffee bits that is gluten-free) and Girl Scout S’mores (a graham sandwich cookie with chocolate and marshmallow filling).

Customers also have the option of purchasing boxes for donation to military personnel serving overseas through Operation Thin Mint. Donations are $5 per box.

Those who would like to buy cookies and do not encounter a Girl Scout can make a contact request through the “Girl Scout Cookie Finder” app available for Apple and Android mobile devices through the Apple App Store and Google Play. There is even an option to have cookies shipped to them. Shipping requires a minimum purchase of four boxes and starts at $12.99.

Uhrig said her goal is to sell 650 boxes of cookies.

“I usually meet that goal, and hope to overachieve,” she said. “Usually I sell 650 to 700 boxes each year, so that has been my baseline for a while.”

Her stated plan is to use the cookie sale proceeds for community building activities for younger Girl Scouts, like hosting the “She & Me” camping event. Before the pandemic is was a camping weekend for Daisies and Brownies with their mother, grandmother, aunt or other woman in their life. It was held at the council’s Whispering Oaks camp near Julian.

Uhrig said she would like the camping event to return, which she helps organize and support with other teenage Girl Scouts who are Independents or in troops.

“Around 100 girls from various troops attend,” she said.

She has also hosted a Junior Encampment weekend at Girl Scouts San Diego’s headquarters at Balboa Park. Its activities included a geocaching workshop and archery training so participants could earn patches, badges and have camping experiences.

Each year part of her cookie sale proceeds go toward making Christmas ornaments for homebound seniors as a community service project.

“For a really long time, I have loved the work ethic (learned through the cookie sale),” Uhrig said.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for her cookie sales efforts said her advice to younger Scouts selling cookies is to “be a go-getter about it. Don’t stop. Ask every single person you see. Be super ... confident.”

As for being a Girl Scout, Uhrig said what she likes best is the opportunities it provides to connect with other girls.

“It is a good sisterhood to have,” she said. “The friends I have made I will keep for the rest of my life. We might move away, but will still be in contact because of our connection and special memories.”

As for Uhrig’s goals during her remaining years in Girl Scouting before she graduates, Uhrig said she wants to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, the organization’s highest honor. Right now she is working on designing her Gold Award project.