Springfield Gardens Girl Scout is city’s top cookie seller for second year

She truly is the queen of cookie sales.

Springfield Gardens eighth-grader Najah Lorde is once again the top Girl Scout cookie seller in New York City with 1,816 boxes.

Last year, the now-13-year-old more than doubled her sales from the previous year, earning the cookie crown for the first time.

Najah was already aiming for another win shortly after the first one.

But when she found out she was the number one seller for a second time — beating out 10-year-old Brooklyn resident Danielle Bioh, who sold 1,782 boxes, and Manhattan’s Madeleine Noveck, an 8-year-old Brownie who sold 1,728 boxes — the news came as a shock.

Photo courtesy of Girl Scouts of the USA

“I was really busy during the Girl Scout cookie season so I didn’t get to sell as much as last year,” she said. “I was grateful and thankful that I was still able to be the top Girl Scout cookie seller.”

Najah’s mother, DeAnne Lorde, was also surprised Najah took the top spot after selling 2,833 boxes the previous year. Unlike last cookie selling season, she said her daughter was preoccupied with high school prep, including exams and applications, while keeping up with her grades.

“She didn’t have the time to put in the amount of effort that she really wanted to,” she said.

But Najah, using both new and old strategies, still sold an impressive amount of the sweet treats.

The Troop 4287 member again used the networking skills normally seen in a much older person, taking contacts from her parents’ phones and asking her customers to reach out to others.

“My favorite part [of selling] is learning all the skills like time management, organization and keeping track of money,” Najah said.

During the selling period — from the second week of December to late January — she sold cookies at her school, Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy in Douglaston; her church, the Greater Allen Cathedral of New York; and her parents’ workplace, SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

IMG_0467[1] — Najah Lorde surrounded by boxes of cookies in the U-Haul truck her family had to rent to pick up her cookies after she became the top seller for the first time last year. (THE COURIER/File photo)

She also decided to try a new selling method this year — social media.

Najah posted an image of her sales sheet on her father’s Facebook page as a way to find more customers.

This year was also the first time in the nearly 100-year history of the cookie program that Girl Scouts got to sell the baked goods online through their own digital stores. The three top sellers all had significantly higher-than-average digital cookie sales, according to the Girl Scouts of Greater New York. With the help of the new online sales tool, the city’s Girl Scouts sold 1,084,526 boxes this year, up from 998,580 boxes the previous year.

“The focus of the cookie program is on teaching girls leadership and business skills in a fun setting that also builds courage and character,” said Girl Scouts of Greater New York CEO Barbara Murphy-Warrington. “Setting goals and developing a sales strategy, making independent decisions, managing money, learning to communicate well with people, understanding business ethics — these are all skills our girls acquire that will serve them well throughout their lives.”

In addition to being named the number one seller, Najah, along with each Girl Scout who sold more than 1,000 boxes, received all the prizes offered, including an iPad Air.

“I’m not sure about next year. I’ll just have to wait and see what’s going to happen,” Najah said about taking the top spot for a third time in a row.

Her mother says high school could get in the way of her cookie selling, but they are ready to “follow her lead.”

“We are ready to take on whatever she is ready to take on.”

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