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MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Sandy Springs Girl Scout tops the cookie charts
BY MELISSA WEINMAN
melissaweinman@reporternewspapers.net
SPECIAL
Meghan Devine, a Girl Scout from Holy Spirit Preparatory School, has
consistently been one of the top cookie sellers in the Atlanta area.
It’s that time again.
You can expect a knock on the door,
an order form passed around the office,
perhaps a booth in front of the grocery
store where your friendly, local scouts
will be offering those delectable Girl
Scout cookies.
When it comes to
cookie sales, few can
outdo Dunwoody
resident Meghan
Devine.
Devine has regular
ly ranked as one of At
lanta’s top cookie sellers, often selling more
than 1,000 boxes each year — and around
13,000 over the course of her scouting ca
reer — to earn money for her troop.
Devine, a junior at Holy Spirit Prepara
tory School in Sandy Springs, said her am
bitious cookie sales are rooted in a com
petitive spirit and a philanthropic nature.
As a fifth grader in 2006, Devine
signed up to sell cookies at a booth out
side of a Walmart. But the store acciden
tally double-booked Meghan with an
other scout, who seemed to be making
all the sales that day.
“I was like, ‘I want to outsell her
now,”’ Meghan recalls.
That scout happened to be one of At
lanta’s top sellers, and Meghan decided
to try to top her. That year, Meghan sold
2,802 boxes.
Meghan was also driven to sell cookies
in hopes of helping the Girl Scout camp
she attended. She had heard that due to fi
nancial troubles, the camp would have to
sell some of its horses because they could
no longer afford to care for them.
“I wanted to sell a bunch of boxes
and save the horses,” she said. “I was a
little girl with big dreams.”
Meghan said it was rewarding to learn
that through money earned by the local
Girl Scout Council that year, they were
able to keep all the horses at the camp.
“They were able to save the horses,
they didn’t have to sell any of them,” she
said.
Each year after, Meghan continued to
think big. In 2007, she set her person
al record, selling 3,111 boxes of cookies.
And the competitive spirit has been
contagious. “There have been a couple
of other girls that have sold 1,000 [box
es] with me,” Meghan said. “Now my
troop — every year, we’re one of the top
selling troops in our service unit.”
Meghan’s mother, Anne Devine, said
it’s been amazing to watch the girls push
each other to sell more.
“When Meghan started selling a
whole bunch of cookies, she showed the
other girls in her troop that it was actu
ally possible. No one else had thought
that big,” Anne Devine said. “It caught
on and other girls in her troop started
selling more and more. .. .When girls see
that things are possible, they start to be
lieve that they can do it, too. Girl Scout
cookies sales have skyrocketed over the
last few years.”
And the troop has been able to do
some pretty amazing things as a result of
all those sales.
Meghan said the troop at Holy Spir
it, which has been together since most
of them were in ele
mentary school, has
used the money from
cookie sales to travel
to Switzerland. This
summer, the troop
is saving money to
travel to Costa Rica,
where they will form a partnership with
a troop of Girl Guides, the Costa Rican
analogue for scouts.
Meghan said she’s learned a lot about
herself from selling cookies.
“I think the thing I like most about
it is I’m kind of shy, and cookie sales
bring me out of my box and forces me
to talk to other people and smile, and be
friendly and outgoing,” she said. “I can
kind of be shy and close up with people
I don’t know. It’s like a whole other me
when I’m selling cookies. Its shown me a
side of me I didn’t know was there.”
Meghan said her cookies sales may
have been driven by competition in the
beginning, but now it’s something she
does because she loves it.
“I love selling cookies, I love being
interviewed because of my cookie sales.
I actually did the first pitch at the At
lanta Braves game. I’ve just been award
ed so many opportunities because of my
cookie sales,” she said.
Then, as the conversation was wind
ing down, Meghan said, “Now, I have a
question for you: Would you like to buy
some Girl Scout cookies?”
Do you know an organization or
individual making a difference
in our community? Email
editor@reporternewspapers. net
www.ReporterNewspapers.netl JAN. 25 —FEB. 7, 2013 | 19
