MILTON, Wis. – Wisconsin’s top Girl Scout cookie seller of 2021 has set a new record for the Badgerland Council. 

Gracie Karpes of Milton now has three Girl Scout vests. They’re all packed with badges. She’s been a scout since she was just six. At age 14, this is her eighth year. 

But she’s never had a cookie season like this. She sold 8,010 boxes of cookies, more than any other Girl Scout in Wisconsin. 

“I set my first goal the first weekend, so I just kept adding on,” she said.

Over time, her goal just kept growing. 

When asked whether she’d ever sold close to that before, Gracie scoffed.

“No,” she laughed. The highest she’d ever gotten was about 1,800 boxes. 

Gracie dedicated herself to selling every Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday. It totaled about 20 hours per week. 

“It was like a part time job for her,” said Gracie’s mom Julie Karpes. "You're standing there for eight, nine hours a day, to just sell all those Girl Scout cookies.” 

They basically made Walmart stores their home base. 

“We did every Walmart in like 50 miles,” Gracie laughed. 

“It was getting to be a lot,” Julie said. “We would go and pick up 1,000 boxes of cookies. And then each weekend, we would have our booth locations.” 

We asked leaders at the Badgerland Council for some context. Just how much is 8,000 boxes in comparison to the big picture of cookie sales? Christy Gibbs responded with “REALLY HIGH!!” The average top seller had about 600 boxes of cookies. While Gracie was #1, the #2 seller sold about 4,000. 

All the hard work paid off, though. While Gracie is proud of her accomplishment, mom Julie might be even prouder. 

“It’s unbelievable that she sold that many. We had no idea that she was gonna do that well this year,” Julie said. “Her determination, and setting a goal and reaching it, and then setting a new goal… it was just awesome.” 

Gracie believes part of her success is because fewer girls participated this year. Julie said the later start to cookie season made a difference too. Gracie often got caught in the rain instead of the snow. 

Soon, she should be receiving new badges to celebrate her sweet win. 

As the top winner in Wisconsin, Gracie was able to pay for some summer camps. This summer, she’ll spend a week paddling around and camping on the Apostle Islands. But her favorite was Hero Camp, where she got to be with police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders. She wants to be a police officer someday.