Sweet News Helps Girl Scout Troop Started in NYC Homeless Shelters with First Cookie Selling Program

If you need a story rooted in kindness and goodwill to restore any wavering faith in mankind then the success of Girl Scout Troop 6000’s first-ever Cookie Selling Program may be a welcome respite from the negative media chatter across all channels. Here’s the sweet scoop:

Girl Scout Troop 6000 recently kicked off their first ever Girl Scout Cookie Program® with an original goal of selling 6,000 boxes of cookies over a six day period. The new Kellogg's® NYC Café, an immersive brick-and-mortar cereal café in the Union Square neighborhood served as the perfect stage for Troop 6000 to test their cookie selling skills. What is unique about Troop 6000 which is part of Girl Scouts of Greater New York (GSGNYC) is that it is specially designed to serve the thousands of girls living in the New York City homeless shelter system. Each week, Troop 6000 meets in shelters across the city, led by trained troop leaders – women and mothers also living in the shelter. Troop 6000 was established in March 2017 through a partnership between New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and Mayor Bill de Blasio and today includes over 300 members. 

Reilly Connect in collaboration with Kellogg’s, GSGNYC and its PR team blitzed the media to spread the word about Troop 6000’s cookie selling attempt. Hundreds of people lined up each day to open their hearts to Troop 6000 and to satisfy their love for Girl Scout Cookies while helping the girls reach their goal. As the news coverage spread each day so did the lines. By week’s end Troop 6000 had sold 32,569 boxes of cookies thanks to the generous people of New York who came in droves and the monumental positive traditional and social media coverage that inspired them. The coverage came in multiple waves and continued well beyond the cookie selling event to include follow up stories reporting on Troop 6000's success. More than 82 stories were generated across television, print and social media. Stories spread to ten local markets and to date more than 450 million media impressions have been generated. 

The girls of Troop 6000 showed their sales grit, the people of New York stood in line patiently with smiles and warmth to showed their love for the girls and to stock up on their favorite cookies. Our collective PR teams showed our resilience at flawlessly managing the media bombardment. Reilly's video production talent also created shareable video content on the spot to help tell the wonderful success story of Troop 6000’s Cookie Selling program to media who could not attend extending the reach of our efforts well beyond New York.

Girl Scouting build girls of courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place. Girl Souting is for girls and gives all girls a voice. The Girl Scouts of Troop 6000 shouted loud and clear. Their voices were heard and people listened and responded with kindness and generosity. Reilly Connect's teams in New York and Chicago were so honored and proud to be part of this life-changing week for these girls and their efforts to make the world a better place were felt by all.

The Girl Scout Cookie Program® is the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world—and helps girls earn money for educational activities, community projects and travel opportunities. All net revenue raised from cookie sales (100 percent) stays with the local councils and troops. Kellogg® is the parent company of Little Brownie Bakers®, which is licensed by Girl Scouts of the USA, and has been baking Girl Scout Cookies since 1973.

Reilly Helps Kellogg's & Girl Scouts Slam Dunk Guinness World Record

More than 3,200 Girl Scouts, family members and friends of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana (GSGCNWI) joined together on January 6 to break  the Guinness World Record for most cookies dunked in milk at one time. The dunk, which took place at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL, was part of the GSGCNWI Cookie Rally to kick off its 2018 Girl Scouts Cookie Program. Reilly team was tapped by Kellogg’s to collaborate with the Girls Scouts of Greater Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana on media outreach surrounding the record-breaking event.

“Our team showed its video production and media relations chops again at this really fun event filled with young girls, their families and friends all with sparkles in their eyes as they prepared to make history,” said Susan Reilly, President Reilly Connect.  “We were PR challenged because the event was the Saturday after New Year’s when so many people were on holiday singing fa-la-la-la la or Auld Lang Syne so we tapped our mobile production team to capture the event and pushed out footage with wonderful shots and comments from the girls.” 

 The media relations’ team effort resulted in 18 traditional and online media placement including:  NBC News 5, ABC7 Eyewitness News, Fox News Chicago, Time Inc.’s Food & Wine, the Daily Herald  and the Chicago Tribune totaling approximately 15 million impression.

“Our combined forces with the GSGCN PR team really ignited our media success,” said Reilly.  “The substantial coverage is testimony to our media relationships in Chicago and our mobile production capabilities which helped us secure same day coverage since crews were tight.” 

Pictured from left to right: Nancy Wright, CEO, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana; Girl Scout Clodagh Sampin of Troop 20277; Girl Scouts Colleen Marks and Madeline Melzer of Troop 20804; and Wendy Davidson, President, U.S. Specialty Channels, Kellogg Company, celebrating the record-breaking win—setting the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for most cookies dunked in milk at one time.

Note: Little Brownie Bakers®, a Division of Kellogg’s®, is licensed to provide Girl Scout Cookies for Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.