Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 17/99) - Every year during the month of May, forces gather nationwide for a drive that takes seven days.

That holds true too for girls in the North, as they unite in an attempt to sell 246,720 chocolate and vanilla spring sandwich cookies.

The girls, of course, are the Girl Guides of Canada, made up of Sparks, Brownies and Guides, and the seven-day drive is their annual Cookie Drive.

In the North, however, there are exceptions to the rules and that's when Northern traditions take over.

Because Yellowknife's ice road plays a critical role in the delivery process, Mr. Christie ships cookie-filled cartons into Yellowknife before the road goes out.

The cookies are then stored in a local warehouse until the much-anticipated drive begins.

This year's total was 12,336 boxes of cookies to be sold throughout the North.

"The girls love it, they can hardly wait for the cookies to get here," says Deleigh Rausch, product marketing co-ordinator for the Girl Guides of the Northern Territories (a.k.a. cookie co-ordinator.)

All but 5,136 boxes of cookies, that's the Yellowknife quota, are loaded into the bellies of airplanes (but not eaten by them) and flown to their final destinations.

Once the cookies arrive in their respective communities, the girls dress in their uniforms and, instead of attending their weekly meeting, take to the streets, ringing doorbells and tempting families with their wares.

"We (Rankin Inlet) had a blizzard last week so we won't start selling until Monday," said Carla Kolysher, who is with Rankin Inlet Girl Guides. "We had to postpone things because of the weather."

Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet each receive 960 boxes of the spring cookies, totalling 19,200 cookies, exactly half chocolate and half vanilla.

"The cookies have been selling really well this year," said Kerry Ferris from Iqaluit. "I'd say we're expecting to sell out."

Smaller communities, like Wha ti and Deline, get their official number of boxes, 48 each, and usually sell out too.

In those 48 boxes there are 960 cookies for each community. With populations of 418 and 616 respectively, almost everyone in town will get two cookies each.