WALLACE — “Girl Scouts do one thing, they make the world a better place.”

That’s something Brian Newberry, the Eastern Washington and North Idaho Girl Scouts CEO, believes is doubly true for the Wallace-based Girl Scout Troop 2401.

Though the troop has only existed since fall 2023, they were recognized regionally for their community engagement, local fundraising and their cookie sales pitch, donning an axolotl costume to interest passersby and drum up sales.

The force with which Newberry noted the girls joined the organization and the growth they’ve been able to achieve in a few months by their activities with the Wallace Food Bank raising money for an even newer Daisy troop in Pinehurst and honoring Judge Keisha Oxendine during a women of distinction event in March.

“It was like something out of the movies,” Scout leader Eva Corona said.

The honor to present the woman of distinction award is typically reserved for a high school Girl Scout, but the oldest scout in the group is 12 years old. Her daughter, Lucille Corona, presented the award and read off the summary of Keisha's accomplishments in front of a crowd of 330 people.

“It was one of the biggest highlights of the whole year going from zero experience to being the youngest presenter on the stage,” Corona said.

Corona didn’t plan on striking out and forming a new troop, but when the family moved to Shoshone County and begged her to lead she had a few words of warning but she accepted their proposal.

“We’re going to be doing lots of stuff, we’re going to be tired,” Corona said.

As a former homeschool mom, she’s accustomed to running from activity to activity to keep her kids engaged and learning.

“The foundation of Girl Scouts is sisterhood and we want them to keep laughing, have fun and be a team in the community,” she said.

Volunteering for the Wallace Food Bank, racing in the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving (in their dress clothes), going on a field trip to the Blue Zoo Aquarium in Spokane and working on assorted patches and pins were among the first few orders of business for the troop.

The girls contributed to Shoshone Pet Rescue, helped decorate for the Wallace Chamber of Commerce for Home for the Holidays event as well as singing for the tree lighting ceremony and pageant, bussed tables and cleaned up during a breakfast with Santa event.

Participating in World Thinking Day, the group learned about South Korea and presented the information at the event.

When Amber Nichols saw the way the Wallace troop was making their presence known in the community, she decided to take the plunge and form a Daisy troop in Pinehurst for younger scouts.

“I love that she took the initiative to start this group,” Corona said.

Nichols and Corona are both excited because the addition of two more troops now allows the Silver Valley to be considered a service unit with potentially more opportunities.

“It’s going to just allow the girls to give back and grow for the better,” Nichols said.

Corona’s new goal upon hearing the interest was to pave the way by fundraising for them during Girl Scouts cookie season. 

Troop 2401 experienced firsthand how starting with only $1 in your account when you are new is a rough start. They were able to foray that into 1,000 boxes of cookies sold their first year.

Door-to-door techniques, planning goals and working out steps to achieve them and learning sales marketing and customer service were just a few elements the troop tackled in short order.

One girl who started out very shy and scared to approach people wound up being comfortable being a salesperson. 

“I tried to teach them, we’re not just selling cookies, we’re selling an experience,” Corona said, adding the inflatable axolotl costume helped as an icebreaker. 

“I’m so impressed that we stayed on our feet and had good attitudes. They were going to drop out and now they’re in it with their whole hearts,” Corona said.

    Girl scouts Lucille Corona and Abigail Corona pose with Wallace Food Bank president Michael Hoffman.
  

    Though many of them had never been a Girl Scout or learned about sales practices before, Troop 2401 hit the ground running, using an inflatable axolotl costume as a point of interest for their cookie booth. Left to right: Abigail Corona, Penny Pehan, Delia Pehan, Lyvia Finlay, Lucille Corona, Elliana Wurtz and Riley Greer.