Last June, Nita Blose retired after 23 years as Fountain Hills’ girl scout neighborhood manager. Blose handed the reigns over to Erika Percic and Katie Hermie, and the new co-managers got their scouts back together for activities and service after more than a year of Zoom meetings, and they have high hopes for 2022.

Percic said that troops started meeting last fall in small groups. Each of the eight troops varied based on parent comfort levels regarding masks and indoor/outdoor meetings. One of the first things that Percic did with her troop was take 10 girls to Camp Tontozona in Payson.

“This year we took the kids in the fall up to Tontozona, which is the ASU Sun Devils’ summer camp, basically,” Percic said. “It’s got a professional football field, and it’s got cabins for camping, and they had an outdoor adventure obstacle course. We did a hike to a waterfall up there, had smores, a campfire and all that other good stuff.”

Two of the eight local troops are new, and there was an ice-skating event in December open to all Fountain Hills Girl Scouts. Percic said that her friend’s daughter, who plays in a travel hockey club, gave lessons to the scouts. Some girls needed to learn how to skate first, but they all eventually got the hang of it and learned about hockey.

As a neighborhood co-manager, Percic wants to ensure that all the scouts have age-appropriate activities and instruction. Girl Scouts is organized with that in mind, as the troops are separated by age, but some lessons can be learned at any age. The local Girl Scouts hope to get a great start to 2022 with two town-wide activities this January, encampment and cookie sales.

Encampment will be the first time all Fountain Hills troops gather for outdoor camping since the COVID pandemic began. This year’s encampment will take place in Prescott.

There is a good chance local residents have received an email or been approached about placing an order for Girl Scout cookies already. The sale began digitally on Friday, Jan. 7, but in-person sales didn’t start until Monday, Jan. 17. The Girl Scouts will accept cookie orders until Feb. 27.

“What we do is we basically give back to the community,” Percic said. “A portion of our proceeds goes toward fun things, and a portion of our proceeds goes towards service projects.”

According to Percic, Girl Scouts make about 90 cents per cookie box sold, and all the proceeds will stay within the Arizona Cactus-Pine Council and the council’s four camps around the state. This year the girls will sign up for two-hour shifts and set up cookie booths outside of Bashas’, Fry’s, Ace Hardware and other local businesses like Sami Fine Jewelry and Papaya’z.

The troops will give awards for cookie sales and money management, and they will donate to projects around town. In the past, the troops have donated food to the Extended Hands Food Bank, toys for Adopt a Family, donated hay to Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and more. According to Percic, not every girl sold cookies last year, but 12 Girls Scouts were able to amass $4,000.

Girls Scouts are introducing a new cookie this year, Adventurefuls. Adventurefuls are brownie-inspired cookies with caramel-flavored crème and a hint of sea salt, and Percic said the test boxes were well received by the local scouts.

For up-to-date information on cookie booth locations and times, download the Girl Scout Cookie Finder App or go to girlscoutslp.org/en/cookies/find-cookies.html.