Cookie Incentives from the 80s

Just for fun, I thought I’d pull out some of the cookie incentives that I earned as a girl in the 80s since it’s cookie season.  Yay.  Surprisingly, they made it through my mother’s purging of junk from my room throughout the years.  All I’ve got left are stuffed animals and patches, so I’m not sure if anything else was offered.  I never made it close to getting any of the cool gifts.  Jenny and Caroline always sold enough to get a free week of summer camp at Camp WaBak.  Our council (Northeast Georgia at the time) didn’t own any camps, so we had a deal with Old 96.  I was insanely jealous, I must admit. 

Here’s a list of the cookie campaigns from my Troop 20 years:

• 1982 Cookie Rodeo
• 1983 Cookie Rally
• 1984 Cookie Marathon
• 1985 Cookie Encounter
• 1986 Cookie Safari
• 1987 Cookie Magic
• 1988 Cookie Festival
• 1989 Cookie Fun Fair

There were smaller patches that you could earn at the next level.  I got those, at least.  I am not sure what year the “Over 50 years of Girl Scout cookies” comes from, especially considering last year (2017) was the 100th year of cookies which would have made 1967 the 50th.  I guess technically any year in the 80s is “over 50 years,” but why didn’t they make it “over 65 years” or something closer to the actual year?  Inquiring minds want to know.

The ESP patch with fancy sparkly silver thread is from the 1985 Cookie Encounter campaign and Magic is from… yes, 1987’s Cookie Magic!  Derp.  I’m not sure what ESP stood for but I don’t think it was Extra Special Person.  Maybe Extra Special… I don’t know.  We’ll just go with Extra Special Person-For-Selling-More-Cookies.

Here’s a patch that I think is from 1989’s Cookie Fun Fair, but don’t hold me to it.

And because Jenny was a SUPER SELLER when it came to selling cookies, she earned these two patches from the 1985 Cookie Encounter and 1986 Cookie Safari campaigns:

And now for the stuffed animal parade!

At some point I had a silver alien stuffed animal (alien?) that I used as a prop for a project, but I don’t know if that was a cookie incentive for 1985’s Cookie Encounter or not.  I don’t believe so.  I’d like to point out that Alien Biscuits first made an appearance the summer of 1984, and Cookie Encounter was the theme for 1985. Coincidence?  I think not!  😉

Mrs. Vickers told me that she fought for us to forego incentives our last two years so that we could earn more per box.  She said it was a big fight.  I’d like to have been there to see a Mrs. Vickers vs. Mary Lee Flanagan argument.  Mrs. Vickers obviously won, but I bet MLF made it interesting!