Girl Scouts warm up for cookie season at UCI rally

It’s almost Girl Scout cookie season again, and more than 1,000 Orange County Girl Scouts celebrated at a rally Saturday at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

The Scouts used the occasion to introduce a new cookie, the Gluten Free Trio, which includes chocolate chips and gluten-free peanut butter and oatmeal.

They also participated in activities to help them create a business plan, fine-tune their sales pitch, make change, manage money and set goals.

This year’s Girl Scout cookie program, which runs Jan. 25 through March 8, will feature an online sales platform for the first time. The platform, called Digital Cookie, will enable Scouts to take in-person cookie orders from customers and, for the first time, automate cookie shipments through a transaction application. Customers who buy cookies from girls using the application will be able to have their order processed, paid for and confirmed in front of their eyes, the Girl Scouts said.

— Rob Vardon