Mom-daughter pajama party kicks off annual cookie drive
There was no mistake that Jan and Emily Spoon were mother and daughter.
Even Emily's doll, Samantha, wore matching pajamas - made by Spoon - at the annual Girl Scouts Mamas in Pajamas cookie-sale kick-off Saturday night at Evans High School.
For the second year, organizers staged the event to get Girl Scouts excited about selling cookies and gave them a chance to bond with their mothers.
"This is fun," said Spoon, of Evans, who attended last year's sleep-over with 8-year-old Emily, who is a member of Brownie Troop 308.
Emily's troop set up sleeping bags and playfully piled onto an air mattress, excited about the night full of activities.
The 530 mothers and daughters who attended the event represented Columbia County's 97 troops that will begin selling cookies later this month.
Organizer Jennifer Crow and Greenbrier Service Manager Dorothy Gunder built on the popularity of last year's activity stations and set up eight, where girls silk-screened their own Girl Scout T-shirts; made note cards and picture frames for their pajama-clad, mother-daughter photos; learned cookie-selling safety and etiquette; and gave each other pedicures and manicures.
Paula Kiser of Evans waved her nails to dry them after her daughter, curler- and slipper-wearing Laura Beth, 7, painted them. Laura Beth, a member of Troop 321, attended the sleep-over last year and had a great time, she said.
The girls will begin selling cookies throughout the area Jan. 17, including two new varieties - Double Dutch for chocolate lovers and Lemon Coolers vanilla and lemon cookies, said Susan Simmons, director of communications and marketing for the Central Savannah River Girl Scout Council.
Last year, the council sold nearly 562,000 boxes of cookies equaling nearly 95 million cookies - enough to reach Jekyll Island, Ga., if laid end-to-end.