This article was first published in the February 22 issue of The Mountain-Ear.

Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.

Temptation was everywhere over the weekend: the grocery store, downtown street corners, the lawn in front of the Nederland Town Hall, inside the B & F Mountain Market and in the parking lot across from the road to Eldora. You couldn’t miss them, the young entrepreneurs prompting passersby to stop.

Adorable, sweet-smiled, eager Girl Scouts, waving boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils and a whole bunch of new peanut butter cookies, touted their famous, once-a-year products that raise the money that funds their projects, trips and outdoor adventures that inspire leadership and teamwork amongst the girls.

The first Girl Scout cookie was sold in 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop in Oklahoma brainstormed ways to raise money for their troop. They came up with a simple recipe that sold well. Over the next hundred years, more recipes were added, including the recent favorite S’mores.

Every year, the Girl Scouts look for ways to make their cookies more appealing to health-conscience buyers. In 2005, Girl Scout cookie bakers eliminated trans-fat from their recipes with the intent of making them healthier.

In January of 2015, Girl Scouts began selling cookies online. Cookies sell for $4 a box and 70 percent of proceeds stay in the local area supporting the Girl Scout council as well as 15 percent that goes directly to the group doing the selling.

In 1992, the Scouts sold 175 million boxes of cookies nationwide. The revenues pay for events and activities for Girl Scouts. The most popular flavors are the Thin Mints, followed by Samoas and Caramel Delights.

When you buy Girl Scout Cookies you help fund new adventures and life-changing opportunities for girls—from trips to our nation’s capital, to community projects, summer camps and Girl Scouting’s highest awards. You also help girls learn essential life skills such as setting and achieving goals, problem solving, trying new things, financial literacy, and social entrepreneurship.

Over the weekend, the Nederland scouts troop learned to endure icy blasts of Continental Divide wind, how to grab onto the paperwork before it blew away to Kansas and how to smile at customers while their fingers were turning numb.

Lola, Beatrix and Sadie Fowers settled in the parking lot across from the road to Eldora where the girls took turns wearing a cookie box and dancing to attract attention. They took turns being the cookie in the box. Their arms and legs stuck out of the box with pictures of scouts on the front and they jumped up and down and waved their arms. Who wouldn’t stop for a dancing cookie box?

Cars pulled into the parking lot; most people were leaving the ski area, hungry, tired and in need of a cookie. They were already opening the box on the way to their car.

Girl Scout Daisies Lily Troy and her cousin Rosie, both six, held up a banner in front of the Nederland Visitor Center, guiding customers to the Town Hall where Camila LeFaiver, 5, and

Isabelle Watts set up shop, bundled against the cold wind.