The Girl Guides of Portage la Prairie used a drive-through approach for Portagers to buy Girl Guide Cookies Wednesday evening. District Commissioner of Girl Guides and the Guide and Pathfinder Leader Kim Houle describes how well the campaign went.

Customer at River Road Co-op Gas Station"Good. The weather has held off. We have a bit of snow, but at least it's not like the weather yesterday. The girls are out in full force selling cookies at Convention Corner, PCU Centre, and River Road Co-op gas station. And they're having a great time and having great sales."

Houle says it's a first for them.

"We haven't done the drive-through before. It's an idea that we heard of from some Winnipeg groups. We normally go door to door, but we thought we'd try something a little different as well. It seems to have gone rather well this year."

When asked if a drive-through was better than door-to door sales, Houle said, "I think so. What do you think, girls? Do you think it's better than going door to door?"

One of the guides responded, "Yeah, because it's more money! And selling more cookies!"

Another guide answered, "More people can see us."

Houle adds, "They're coming to us. So, that's pretty cool."

More sales at the PCU Centre"We normally go door to door. and if the people weren't home we'd miss them. And that's the thing we found. When we were going out, the people weren't at home. They were at their activities or whatever. So, now we're catching them coming and going to their activities. So, that's pretty cool."

Houle agrees some folks don't like people coming to their doors, and adds, "And sometimes we're careful with the girls going door to door, too. So, we make sure that the leaders are always with them."

Houle thanks the community for supporting Girl Guides. She says registration's open now at www.girlguides.ca. And if you need further information you can call the head office at that website. Houle's email address is guider_kim@yahoo.ca.  If you have questions about guiding you can also contact her using that address. Houle adds they're also looking for some leaders for next year. She says there's lots of opportunity to get involved.