2 Girl Scouts From Roosevelt Island Chosen To Represent Girl Scout USA Movement On Millions Of Girl Scout Cookie Box Packaging, Congrats To Persya Perez & Maya Rodney, Well Done - Cookies Arrive In February But You Can Pre Order Now

Who would have thought that not only 1 but 2 Roosevelt Island Girl Scouts were chosen to represent the Girl Scout USA movement on millions of Girl Scout Cookie package boxes. As reported earlier this week, Maya Rodney from Roosevelt Island Girl Scout Troop 3002 is featured on the 2020 Girl Scout Cookie Boxes.

Shortly after publishing the story I learned from a reader:

And another Islander is on the back of Trefoils!!! Persya Perez!! Yitza Martinez’s daughter!!

Goooo Island Girl Scouts!!!

Proud Roosevelt Island Mom Yitza Martinez reports:

My daughter Persya Perez from Troop 3001

is also featured on one of the cookie boxes, the Trefoils to be exact. The chances of getting on a box are pretty slim because they choose girls from all over the United States. The fact that 2 Girl Scouts from Roosevelt Island were chosen is awesome. Congratulations to Maya!

Persya has been on the top 5 cookie seller list for 3 years now. Hoping to one year make it to #1 spot. Competition is pretty fierce, especially here on Roosevelt Island. Either way she is having a good time taking orders to help raise money for the troop to go camping at the end of the Girl Scout year. It's something the girls look forward to. Cookie sales for delivery by girl scout will end on the 13th. If anyone would still like to order and not mind the shipping fee they can still do so after that date. To support Persya on her journey you can use www.tinyURL.com/Joycookies

Here's a message my daughter Persya wrote:

Thank you so much @girlscouts @girlscoutsnyc for giving me this opportunity, and also thank you @kr8zyfam05 @edfromdaroc for helping me these past 7 years since day 1 of being a Girl Scout💖

And lastly, thank you to all of my loyal customers and supporters because without your crave for the best cookies, I wouldn’t have the amount of confidence I have, the business skills, and all the money management skills that I’ve learned in the past years, which is all apart of Girl Scouts as well!#girls#younglady#supportme#cookieseason#girlscout

I asked Roosevelt Island Girl Scout Troop 3001 Leader Aiesha Eleusizov

How does being featured on the Boxes work - it seems unusual to have 2 girls from same neighborhood featured.

Does every neighborhood get a local girl featured on the box?

Ms. Aiesha Eleusizov explains:

First, you should know that the Girl Scout cookie boxes RARELY change - usually they go about a decade with the same boxes. So, it's a pretty big deal that we have new boxes this year at all. And, these are the cookies boxes that a million Girl Scouts will sell all over the US for probably the next ten years or so (I think there are usually about 200 million boxes sold nationwide per year, so their photos will be everywhere!).

As far as I know, there were two ways that girls were chosen to be on the new boxes. A small group of girls (I believe 6) were chosen through the 2018 Girl Scouts of the USA Cookie Pro contest (I don't think either one of the RI girls were chosen through this route). Those girls submitted applications and talked about their Girl Scout entrepreneurial/ cookie sale experiences. The second way was through a Girl Scouts of the USA casting call in 2018 that was sent to girls by invitation only - I believe they invited high sellers and/or girls that are very involved in Girl Scouting. We had a few girls in our troop that went to the casting call - and Persya was picked for a full photo shoot (she went through several rounds of interviews before she was chosen - it was not an easy process!). I don't know how Maya was selected

In addition, as an FYI, we have a number of RI Girl Scouts that are on Girl Scout web sites and promotional materials nation-wide! Because we have such wonderful diversity in our troops on Roosevelt Island, the RI troops were invited to two professional cookie asset photo shoots in May/June 2017. These professional photos are now used nation-wide. It's been great fun to see the faces of our girls (and the RI leaders as well) on promotional materials and websites all over!! Frequently, I get Girl Scout e-mails or see social media posts outside of our local area featuring our local RI Girl Scouts. We have a pretty special community - and one that has been very generous in supporting our Girl Scout cookies!!

On a side note, you should know that donated cookies make their way back to Roosevelt Island as well. Each year we have hundreds of boxes donated to Coler Hospital (for the residents as well as the very hard working staff) and we donate boxes to the Carter Burden Senior Center (for events and holidays (each senior went home with cookies on Thanksgiving) and to RIDA. We also give donated cookies to a group of homebound seniors identified by DASH on their birthday (along with a homemade card and flowers and a cupcake donated by Wholesome Factory). So, if any Islanders want to purchase cookies to be donated, we welcome that as well!

Congrats to Roosevelt Island Girl Scouts Maya Rodney and Persya Perez.