Girl Scout From Camden Co. Sold More Cookies Than Most In South Jersey

HADDONFIELD, NJ — If you bought Girl Scout Cookies earlier this year in the Haddonfield area, it is quite possible you bought them from Shayne Ventura.

That's because the 18-year-old from Haddonfield sold 3,446 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, placing her fourth on a Top 10 list of roughly 12,000 other girls regarding the number of Girl Scout Cookie Boxes sold in Central and Southern New Jersey, according to the Girl Scouts.

Ventura was also a top 10 seller of Girl Scout Cookies in 2021, the Girl Scouts added. You can read about the other Girl Scouts from the Girl Scouts Council of Central and South Jersey from Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem counties who made the top 10 list by clicking this link. Combined, these girls, as well as Ventura and Savannah Spinelli and Emma Tomlin of Atlantic County, sold nearly 33,000 boxes of the cookies in 2022, the Girl Scouts said.

While Ventura's achievement is certainly notable, any Girl Scout who sells cookies is learning skills that may prove valuable now and in her later years, according to Kimberly Bryson, the Girl Scout Council of Central and South Jersey's Chief Operating Officer.

"The Girl Scout Cookie Program provides girls with the opportunity to learn five valuable life skills: Goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics," she told Patch. "Through the Cookie Program, girls become tenacious entrepreneurs by learning what it takes to run a promising business."

Girl Scout Troops often choose to donate proceeds from their cookie sales to support local organizations or to offset some of the costs associated with educational field trips and similar experiences, Bryson continued.

"Whatever the specific goals and outcomes, girls gain skills that are essential to leadership, success and life," she said. "Although the cookie program may only last for a short season each year, it has a long-lasting impact in the lives of girls and their futures."

The Girl Scouts Council of Central and South Jersey covers a nine-county swath of the Garden State that starts in Middlesex, Monmouth and Mercer counties and includes all points south in New Jersey, the Girl Scouts website indicates.

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