Girl Scout dads join cookie sales

In a lot of families, a man’s place in Girl Scouting has more to do with eating cookies than selling them.

This year, though, Scouting leaders in the Inland Northwest are trying to encourage more involvement from the men in Girl Scouts’ lives.

“There aren’t very many specific programs for men in Girl Scouts,” said Lori King, product sales manager for the Scouts’ Inland Empire Council.

After observing councils elsewhere in the country, local Scouting organizers started a campaign titled “Me & My Guy” to get more men involved in cookie sales.

Outside Wal-Mart at the Shadle Center on Friday, Pat Kelly lent his hand to the brisk cookie sales from a table outside the store.

“He helps with a lot of stuff,” said Krystal Kelly, who will be 12 this month.

Her father is one of only a handful of men who help head up troops. He is the co-leader of Troop 551 in Spokane.

“I really got into this thing full force,” Pat Kelly said. “I have totally fallen in love with it.”

His Scouting activities include things like helping to organize a recent daddy-daughter dance and teaching the girls how to make wood toys in his shop. Most recently he’s been helping them earn money for a trip to an international Girl Scout jamboree.

“I think seeing me doing it really kind of gets other guys saying ‘Hey, I can do this too,’ ” Kelly said.

Men have been helping out at cookie sales in Coeur d’Alene as well.

“I think it’s very cool dads are a part of this,” Connie Hawes told Arthur Patin and Mike Horton, who manned the table while their daughters chirped sales pitches to passers-by at Fred Meyer.

A former Girl Scout and mother of a former Girl Scout herself, Hawes said fathers’ involvement in their daughters’ lives needs to be encouraged. Things like the creation of the comic-strip character Adam, a work-at-home dad, “have kind of opened the door more that it’s OK for men to take care of kids,” Hawes added.

For Patin, spending time with his daughters – Heidi, 9, and Hannah, 6 – involves a give and take. He wants to introduce them to backpacking and the outdoors, but he also believes it’s important for him to take an interest in hobbies his girls are passionate about.

“I believe that a daddy-daughter relationship is vital,” said Patin. If girls grow up not getting that affection, they search for it elsewhere, he added, so fathers need to be proactive.

Some men might feel uncomfortable stepping into this Girl Scout role because it’s traditionally mothers’ territory, Horton said. But he said he wishes there were more chances for fathers to get involved.

“It’s not often the dads get an opportunity to do something with their daughters,” said Horton, an engineer whose daughter, Tiegan, is 9. “I’d recommend for all fathers to take advantage of the opportunity.”

When asked what she thought of her dad being out there with her selling cookies, Tiegan said: “I think it’s weird.” But she said she’s glad he’s doing it.

If adding more men to the mix has had any effect on cookie sales, it certainly hasn’t hurt them.

Even though the price of a box of cookies increased 50 cents to $4 this year, receipts so far indicate that by April 16, when the sale ends, Scouts in the entire region likely will sell about as many cookies as last year – more than 360,000 boxes.