Released 2/18/2009

Good students make good Scouts

Chapin students know to capitalize on seasonal treats — you simply don’t miss out on orange-frosted cake on Halloween, gingerbread cookies around the holidays or the chocolate-covered strawberries set out after Commencement.

Recently, a once-a-year treat beloved by much of America has found itself a home at Chapin as well.

Whether in the form of chocolate-mint crisps, discs of peanut butter enrobed in fudge, or chewy vanilla cookies drizzled in caramel and coconut, they’re an unmistakable feature of early winter in the United States, sometimes hoarded in freezers for months.

Yes. Girl Scout Cookies.

There are now four thriving Girl Scout troops at Chapin, whereas just a few years ago there were none, and they’ve brought Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Samoas with them. In fact, this year they collectively brought 13,210 boxes — the stunning total vended by girls in Classes 1, 2 and 3.

When it comes to successfully pitching a product, these girls have clearly learned something.

“It sounds like it might just be a fund-raising activity, but it really teaches the girls selling skills,” said Alyssa Moeder, a Class 3 parent and one of that grade’s troop leaders. “They came up with sales pitches, practiced on each other, came up with prospect lists of customers, and set goals for the troop and for each girl.”

Such experiences seem to be gaining ground among parents and their daughters: Girl Scouting has experienced a relative explosion in popularity at New York City independent schools. According to the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, while the city’s first independent-school troop didn’t exist until five years ago, today 208 girls participate, not only at Chapin, but also at Hewitt, Brearley, Spence and Dalton.

“I think the girls, at a very early age, like the leadership skills that it develops, the sense of accomplishment in reaching a goal, and the chance to work collectively,” Mrs. Moeder said. “I think that dovetails well with what they learn at Chapin.”

It also allows them to take part in activities that bridge beyond what they do in school. The Class 3 group, for example, recently learned Irish step dancing in pursuit of a patch on dance and exercise, will take an overnight camping trip in April, and plans to clean up a local park during a community-service day.

Chapin can be thankful to have Girl Scouts on the scene for many reasons, and not only reasons that come in green, red and purple boxes.