Girl Scouts build skills, connections during ice cream tour – Boulde…

Local Girl Scouts were treated Thursday afternoon to a tour of Sweet Cow Ice Cream in Longmont, one of two locations where the company’s signature Girl Scout cookie ice cream flavors are made.

Twelve scouts – primarily fourth graders at various Longmont schools – from Troop No. 78567 gathered for a hands-on learning experience focused on how ice cream is created, served and stored at the downtown shop, located at 600 Longs Peak Ave.

“Visibility in the community is great, but mostly we just like to do adventures together,” said troop co-leader Aubrie Amelang. “Most of the scouts have been in this group for five years, which is really cool.”

The scouts were treated to a full tour of the shop by co-manager Cat Claus, who answered questions from the young guests and explained the different duties of Sweet Cow employees, such as what it means to be a scooper or shift lead.

Christina Godwin, co-leader of the troop with Amelang, said the tour’s integration of customer service skills will help the scouts be better salespeople as the Girl Scout cookie season continues.

“They’re going to be doing cookie booths all month … so they’re learning that the cookies are being used for something,” she said.

The scouts’ introduction to the shop doubled as the first public tour of the Longmont store, which opened last June and marks the seventh location for the Denver-area chain.

“It’s really exciting to be here,” said tour guest Maureen O’Neill, director of communication, marketing and technology for Sweet Cow. “We’re a new shop in town, and now we’ve got a little momentum going into the summer.”

At the ice cream maker, scouts got to see the dessert get made in real time as caramel, hot fudge, coconut and Girl Scout Samoa cookies were combined to create the “Samoa Samoa” flavor. Claus asked each scout to sample the flavor, waiting for the participants to give it a thumbs-up before she officially dubbed it a “Girl Scout approved” batch.

The tour ended with a reward for each scout: a free scoop of their preferred ice cream flavor. They were also handed “free scoop cards” to give to someone else, like a friend who might be having a bad day, Claus said.

“It’s for you to help build community here in Longmont,” she told the group. “You’re sharing the love of ice cream with all the people around you.”

Another local troop, No. 76091, will get the opportunity to tour the shop Friday afternoon. O’Neill said Sweet Cow scheduled the production of the Girl Scout flavors around the troops’ availability to ensure that scouts could come.

“Getting to see how things work, at that age, is always so much fun,” she said. “They’re learning how things are made.”