SEQUIM — Skylar Krzyworz has reached many milestones in her life. Now the 18-year-old can add cookie queen to that list.
On March 7, outside Walmart in Sequim, she sold her 25,000th box of Girl Scout cookies on her last night of sales.
Krzyworz, a Sequim High School senior and former Sequim Irrigation Festival princess, said she realized she was close to 20,000 boxes sold last year, and after counting it all up, she was closer to 25,000 boxes.
“I wanted to push extra hard this year to hit that milestone,” she said.
“I started selling cookies when they were $4 a box and now they’re $6, but cumulatively that’s about $100,000 to $150,000 worth of product that I’ve sold in the last 13 years, but really 11 (years) because I didn’t sell for two (due to COVID-19).”
Krzyworz has been recognized for being one of the top sellers, including in 2017, when she was the biggest seller in Western Washington with 3,921 boxes sold.
This year, she had to sell more than 2,600 boxes to reach 25,000.
As a 12th-grader, she serves as an Ambassador (grades 10-12) in Troop 45181, helping her mom Heidi lead eight Brownies (second and third grades) and one Junior (fourth and fifth grade).
They’ve led many activities, including building cat scratchers for Olympic Peninsula Humane Society’s Kitty City.
When she was younger, Krzyworz also helped plan, fundraise and decorate a children’s waiting room in the Sequim Civic Center.
While selling cookies, Krzyworz said along with being asked if they have Thin Mints, some also have said she’s too old to be in Girl Scouts.
Although, she added, “some people say that they think it’s really cool I’m still out here selling.”
“I think it’s really cool to have a platform to be able to break the stigma of being an older Girl Scout,” she said.
“So many people don’t know that Girl Scouts continues on into high school and much farther than that. Being out here and a model for the next generation is really awesome.”
Once she graduates from Girl Scouts, Krzyworz will become a lifetime member, she said.
“Girl Scouts has been something that I never realized was going to have such a big impact on me,” she said. “And then, after being in it for 13 years, I don’t know what I would do without it in my life.
“It’s given me grit and perseverance and strength. It’s provided a platform for me to be connected to all these little scouts now, having a troop of eight girls that are 8-years-old.”
Krzyworz said she’s able to mentor them and have a sisterhood.
Zoo, Europe and beyond
As tradition, a portion of each Girl Scouts cookie box sale goes to the scout or troop for activities.
Troop 45181 will use some funds this April for a Zoo Snooze trip at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, where scouts will spend the night by sea creatures. They’ll also use funds for other camping trips throughout the year.
Krzyworz has saved the last three years of her cookie sales for a second trip to Europe, this time to Greece and Italy, before starting college.
She’s considering attending Pacific Lutheran University this fall to pursue a degree in primary education with a minor in Spanish. Her hope is to teach abroad.
Krzyworz said her years in Girl Scouts have helped build her confidence and ability to speak her mind.
“Now I’m able to just be confident and be unapologetically myself,” she said.
“That includes not overthinking every little thing that I said, and I can just be truly who I am and know I’m OK with that.”
Krzyworz said local Girl Scout cookie fans will be in good hands.
“I have a troop of eight little Girl Scouts that are going to be hitting the town next year, so watch out for them because, even though I’m leaving, there’s going to be eight of them in town,” she said.
For more information about Girl Scouts, visit girlscouts.org.
________
Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
Total cookie sales
If you ask Girl Scout Skylar Krzyworz what people most want, it’s Thin Mints. For her, though, it’s Tagalongs. For more than a decade, she’s had a regular customer base and it only took her a year to go from three- to four-digit sale totals as a first-grader.
2012 — 118
2013 — 1,003
2014 — 1,756
2015 — 2,327
2016 — 3,036
2017 — 3,921
2018 — 2,407
2019 — 2,640
2020-2021 *
2022 — 3,007
2023 — 2,131
2024-25 — 2,654
As a kindergartener, Skylar Krzyworz sold 118 boxes of Girl Scout cookies and the next year her total jumped up to 1,003 boxes sold. She went on to sell 25,000 boxes total through her years in Girl Scouts. (Heidi Krzyworz)
Girl Scouts Malta Bushy and Skylar Krzyworz sell cookies on March 7 for Troop 45181. They will use sales for various trips, including an overnight stay at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in April. Krzyworz has saved her cookie sales for three years for a trip to Greece and Italy this summer. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
