Riverdale sixth grader named Manhattan’s top Girl Scout cookie seller with 2,500 boxes sold

Naomi has been selling Girl Scout cookies since she was five years old.

Courtesy GSGNY

The results are in and Manhattan’s highest cookie-selling Girl Scout is none other than Riverdale’s own, 12-year-old Naomi of New York troop 3234.

Through frigid temperatures and rainy days, the RKA Academy sixth grader sold a whopping 2,500 boxes from January to April, reaching the benchmark for the second time. Last year, she was top seller in the Bronx. 

The young entrepreneur uses several outlets for selling her cookies, including social media, but during the season, you can find her hawking her sweet treats in her booth, specifically in Harlem or on 181st Street and Fort Washington Avenue. Sometimes she packs her wagon with up to 100 boxes at a time, suffering a broken wheel every now and then.

“It was hard because either like right before or right after I would go to softball practice which is around an hour or two and then selling cookies is around two or three hours,” Naomi said. 

The Girl Scouts of Greater New York (GSGNY) was founded in 1913, but it wasn’t until 1917 when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma started the cookie-selling tradition as a service project, baking the cookies themselves and selling them in the high school cafeteria. 

“The Girl Scout Cookie program has never been about individual sales results, but rather the program outcomes, through which Girl Scouts learn important entrepreneurial and life skills and invest their earnings in powering troop activities year-round,” a spokesperson for Girl Scouts USA told The Press.

For Naomi, it all started when she saw a flyer for the all-girl organization in Kindergarten and was eager to join. However, when her mother arranged to have her join a troop, none were available. So, they created their own, which requires five children and two adults. 

“There were so many girls that were interested and we had a group of like 20 kindergarteners,” Kari Nealis said, Naomi’s mother and troop leader.

Nearly eight years later, Naomi continues to strive to be better than the year before, earning a bronze award which requires a girl scout to identify a community issue and create a lasting solution with active engagement. 

In her old school in Maryland, she created a student council which helped the school plan meetings, some trips and events -- the student council is still going strong despite her no longer attending the school.

Days of selling cookies can be tiresome and daunting, but Naomi said the lessons she’s learned and hanging out with her friends makes it all worth it. 

“Maybe you don’t have the energy to sell cookies, there’s a few girls in our troop that didn’t sell this year,” she said. “But they’re still in our troop and they still participate in activities. Whatever you do, do not stop being a Girl Scout because it will help you eventually.” 

Of the life lessons she has learned being a Girl Scout, Naomi reminds others to always be kind and respectful and to remember to have fun.

“Selling thousands of boxes of cookies like Naomi has, speaks to her initiative, perseverance and connection to her community,” Karen Lundgard said, interim CEO of GSGNY. “She’s not just a top cookie seller; she’s a young leader in the making and we couldn’t be prouder of her.”