Treasure Rocha is an eighth grader from Indio who has been a girl scout for the last seven years.

“I like how it teaches you new things and life skills and you make a lot of new friends,” said Treasure.

For the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio, 2020 was like no other.

The troops faced COVID-19 restrictions, which made it challenging for the girls.

“Well we weren’t able to see each other in person anymore,” said Vaneza Rocha, the leader of Troop 174.

“We all had to do just do things online as much as we could with all the rules,” said Treasure.

Aside from group activities, cookie sales were also impacted.

Troops could no longer sell door to door, and grocery store sales were extremely limited.

That’s left over 15 million boxes of cookies unsold nationally, over 200,000 of those are from our local girl scout troops.

The CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio says, equaling over a million dollar negative impact.

“It’s devastating there’s no money for financial aid or for camperships, because now camps are finally opening in a limited way, it means that we have to curtail activities and programs for them and it’s devastating,” said Cynthia Breunig.

To help our valley troops continue their programs, the council is now asking for donations from the community and help moving their delicious inventory.

“We do still have hundreds and hundreds of boxes of unsold cookies in our regional offices including here in palm desert. The office is open on Tuesdays and the public can still come down to the office and purchase cookies during the operating hours of the shop,” said Chantal Francisco, the regional manager of entrepreneurial program for the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio.

The Palm Desert shop is open on Tuesday from 10 am to 4 pm, with a break for lunch from 1-2pm.

And Treasure has a message for all Girl Scouts after this trying year.

“Just to never give up and believe in yourself because I have before but I was able to overcome that,” said Treasure.

Learn more about where you can buy cookies or help out here.

Local Girl Scouts face backlog of cookies after pandemic, in need of funds for programs