Senior Madison Rocker can add another achievement to her senior year beyond a cap and gown: becoming the top seller in the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida with 8,030 boxes sold and 3,821 donated. With these numbers, she set the highest records in her council’s history for general cookie sales and boxes donated. These achievements contributed to her receiving the Gold Award, which is an award awarded to service projects to help fix a problem in the community or make a change in the world through sustainable projects and is considered the most prestigious award in Girl Scouting. Less than 6% of Girl Scouts receive this award from a total of 2.5 million.
Rocker began her journey with the Girl Scouts in elementary school, when her and a couple of her friends joined in the 4th grade. Here, she found her love for Girl Scouts, citing her interest in business. “I’m very passionate about business and Girl Scouts is the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program. I have learned skills like marketing, advertising, money-managing and so much more from selling cookies,” Rocker said. Thus, when she reached the highest level and it was time to apply for the Gold Award projects, she wasted little time, creating a 501 (C)(3) to help the local homeless population by supplying them with non-perishable holiday-themed meals and other necessities.
Rocker came up with this idea because of her love of holidays and desire to help those who don’t get to celebrate them as comfortably as they would like. Using the funds from the prior year’s cookie sales, she purchased the supplies for nonperishable holiday-themed meals and additional necessities. With this plan in mind, she also wrote essays for her proposal, set a budget, asked friends and adults for help, created the 501C3, purchased supplies, saved the empty cardboard cases, communicated with organizations and a state official and is currently waiting until she can distribute the meals when it is safe to do so because of COVID-19.
For physical sales, she dedicated most of the hours during the weekends and after school to selling at booths by traveling on her golf cart. She also had a website where people can purchase cookies to be delivered to them locally, or shipped elsewhere, and worked with local restaurants who made Girl Scout cookie dessert collaborations. “Reaching out to friends and family is always a big driver in how many I sell because not only will they buy cookies, but a lot of people also donate to the military,” Rocker said.
