Cape Coral Girl Scout featured on cookie boxes nationwide

You may soon see one Cape Coral girl on your box of Girl Scout cookies!

Olivia Trader’s face will be featured on the back of Tagalong boxes.

“To actually be on the Girl Scout box, I mean, I could never have predicted that I would get the chance,” Olivia, 12, said. “It’s great because I can show the girls if I could do it, they can too.”

The Challenger Middle School student earned the honor after being chosen as one of six national winners in the Girl Scouts of the USA’s 2018 Girl Scout Cookie Pro contest. Olivia said she sold 7,000 boxes of cookies last year, and she has an impressive resume of giving back to her community.

“I did a lot with the shelter, and it was awesome,” Olivia said of her work with the Gulf Coast Humane Society. “I made fleece blankets for the dogs and made cat scratchers out of recycled Girl Scout cookies for the cats, and toys.”

As part of her Girl Scout Silver Award project, Olivia also helped create a library for the shelter, so children like herself could read to animals there. The young girl who is inspiring people said she donated some of her books and held a drive to fill the library now at the Gulf Coast Humane Society.

“Young cookie entrepreneurs, like Olivia, learn important business and financial literacy skills,” Mary Anne Servian, CEO of Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, said in a press release, “that are proven to build their leadership skills and position them for success in the future.”

“And, every dollar from the Girl Scout Cookie Program stays within the local council,” she added, “to support troop activities, community service projects, council programs and more.”

Her mother, Susan Trader, calls her daughter an inspiration.

“She really inspires me to wanna do good in my community and make a difference in this world,” Susan said.

Olivia said she hopes to sell at least 8,000 Girl Scout Cookies this year and to achieve the Gold Award. Winning the award is the next step as she has accomplished the bronze and silver awards for her work as a Girl Scout.

Her mother adds that we could be seeing this young girl’s face on our Girl Scout cookies for years to come.

“The cookie boxes don’t change every year, so she’s gonna be on there for probably 10 years,” Susan said. “With more than 200 million cookie boxes sold annually, we’re ecstatic.”