It’s that time of year again. The time of year where no Saturday shopping trip is complete without seeing Girl Scouts set up in front of the store. With their fold out tables, homemade posters and patch covered vests, these young girls are on a mission: to sell cookies.

From Thin Mints to Trefoils, these cookies are one of the most iconic representations of the Girl Scouts of America and according to girlscouts.org, over 59 million of today’s American women were involved with Girl Scouts during their lives.

One of those women is Kimberly Diano, a Technical Support Specialist in Bidgood Hall. Diano sells the cookies out of her office to help out her daughter, a Girl Scout and high school senior. After being involved with the organization for 13 years, Diano says she has built up a reputation.

“People know I sell them when cookie season comes around,” Diano said. “People come to me in September and say ‘When are you going to have Girl Scout cookies?’”

Diano also remembers watching throughout the years as scouting helped her daughter grow from a timid and shy child into a confident young woman.

UA students too, have memories of selling the boxes of cookies to family and strangers. Marritt Wiliams, a freshman environmental engineering major, remembers as a young girl mailing cookies to her aunt out of state. Though her time in the scouts is over, Williams and her family still purchased the cookies this year.

“We went to the mall and this girl was selling them and we bought like the last of her boxes,” she said. “We bought 2 boxes for me and my sister then one for my brother but we didn’t buy any for our parents.”

Freshman communication studies major Emily Mandel said she felt selling the cookies as a scout helped her become a better member of her community and that having the support system of a troop was beneficial to her growing up.

“It’s something that’s really important for girls,” Mandel said. “Plus as a minority, there are so many things we struggle with and just having that group of girls that’s with you through so much was really important for me.”

Mandel also recalled a more terrifying experience she had selling cookies.

“One of my neighbors has a little dachshund and it’s kind of evil and I went up to their door and it wasn’t in its cage and it ran out and it bit me and I was terrified to go back there,” she said. “Every time I saw the dog walking by I was like ‘that’s the dog that attacked me.’”

The neighbors ended up buying cookies from her because they felt bad, she said.

As for why the cookies are so popular, Diano said that, from her experience selling them, the memories people associate with them are a significant factor.

“Everyone said ‘oh I sold these when I was little,’” She said. “I think it just brings back all those Girl Scout memories and they want to support scouts because they know important it was to them when people were supporting them when they were little.”