wbjournal.com | February 3, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special
issues in May, September, October, and December by New
England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester,
MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA.
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A division of:
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com
(Higher education, health care)
Staff Writer
Thomas Grillo, tgrillo@wbjournal.com
(Real estate, manufacturing)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon,
Sarah Connell
Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle,
tdoyle@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Art Director, Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
Distribution and Database Coordinator
A Guide to STUFF, a publication
of New England Business Media
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Sabrina Mondor,
smondor@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Director of Audience Development,
Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
M
y favorite entrepreneur-
ial event of the year
kicked off on Jan. 17,
when the Girl Scouts
of Central & Western
started their annual cookie sales.
Aside from being an avid fan of in
Mints, I love how the Girl Scouts have
carved out this large annual niche in the
retail economy, which the organization
uses to support its mission of service,
community and female empowerment.
e event creates this army of young
entrepreneurs, who set up folding tables
and whatnot in high traffic areas, and get
people to pay $5 or $6 for a box of cookies
smaller than a pack of Oreos, of which
I refuse to pay anything higher than the
$2.50 price when they are on sale.
e young Girl Scouts themselves don't
actually get to keep any of the cash, as
they earn rewards like free summer camp,
and the proceeds are split among the
varying levels of the scout organization.
For the Central & Western Mass. council,
cookie sales account for 60% of its annual
revenue. Nationally, the average is 70%.
For the first time this year, the Central
& Western Mass. council held its Local
Celebrity Cookie Cupboard Shi, where
notable volunteers helped in the small
warehouse on Century Drive in Worces-
ter. I was invited to take part in one shi,
which consisted of 60 minutes of me
liing cases of cookies and loudly refuting
anyone who dared called me a celebrity.
(FYI, if you ever get called a celebrity
when you clearly aren't one, it gives your
spouse a lot of fodder for jokes. A LOT.)
Between my organizing orders for
individual Girl Scout troops and loading
cars, what struck me is what a well-oiled
machine the process is. Every employee
of the Girl Scout council in Worcester is
required to do a shi in the cookie cup-
board – even CEO Pattie Hallberg – and
yet it was awe-inspiring to see how these
workers who don't regularly do ware-
house/fulfillment work were ready for
the busy hoards of parents. I worked with
Monica Baldyga, director of membership;
Tammy Breen, special events & project
manager; and Melanie Bonsu, director
of development & marketing (who all
refused to take a photo with me).
I enjoyed my shi more than I enjoy a
I N T H I S I S S U E
box of in Mints, which is saying some-
thing. So few entrepreneurial ventures
have the same impact and include so many
young people, and I was happy to play a
very, very small part.
- Brad Kane, editor
Helping out the Girl Scouts
Bruce Mathieu
Senior Vice President
Business Development Officer
978.353.1331
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NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
5 Briefs
12 Focus on Banking & finance
16 The List: Top banks
17 Column: The Struggle is Real
18 Know How
19 Movers & Shakers
20 Photo Finish
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Stephen Kerrigan, Kennedy
Community Health Center
14 A decade of growth
bankHometown & Fidelity Bank were M&A
players, but most Central Mass. banks have
grown organically.
17 Women leaders start as girls
Viewpoint opinion columnist Victoria
Waterman from Girls, Inc. in Worcester says
the key to overcoming the gender inequality
barrier is starting young.
CORRECTION: The Jan. 20 story "Admissions upheaval" incorrectly
included Dean College among those with larger first-year enrollment
drops. As correctly noted in the accompanying chart, Dean's first-
year enrollment in the past decade has grown 9%.
W
