Now is the time to satisfy your sweet tooth, while helping to support Girl Scout programs as their annual cookie sale gets underway.

The sale continues through March 19 and this is an opportunity to buy the third highest selling cookie brand in the nation.

Proceeds go towards the Girl Scouts Totem Council to upgrade their three camping facilities. Fifty-cents of each $4 sale benefits each local troop's activities.

Girl Scout Troop 374 represents girls from Ballard, Magnolia, Greenwood, Shoreline and Fremont.

Troop 374 scouts will be selling their cookies to their friends, family and in some cases door to door.

The public can also buy the cookies at the Ballard and Crown Hill Safeway stores, Fred Meyer, QFC in Ballard, Bank of America and Washington Mutual.

Some sales will be on weekdays after school, but the sales will primarily be held on weekends.

Amina Kapusuzoglu, 13 years old, started out by selling 300 boxes several years ago. Gradually she increased her sales to an impressive 2,260 boxes. "I really wanted to be a top seller," she said.

This year she is taking a break and expects to sell about 800 boxes of cookies.

Ten-year-old Jaemi Salazar has three "Cookie Diva" badges on her Girl Scouts vest for selling over 200 boxes, three times.

Robyn Gudgell is just six years old and is a first year Brownie with Troop 659.

She already had 150 boxes pre-sold before the cookie sales began on March 3. Gudgell made the sales at North Beach Elementary School where she is a student and also around her neighborhood.

Gudgell is ambitious about her sales goal. "I want to sell 6,000 boxes," she said.

The sales techniques are simple. "I say I'm selling cookies, would you like to buy some?," said Salazar.

Kapusuzoglu tells people the proceeds support her troop's activities. "I always say they are all good. I find something good to say about all the cookies. Even when they say no, I say thank you anyways," she said.

"We have a good product for a good price. They (customers) are really supporting the Girl Scouts," said Gwen Kapusuzoglu, Amina's mother who was a scout herself when she was younger.

Amina Kapusuzoglu's Troop 374 used their money for ice skating, camping, rock climbing, horse back riding and other fun activities last year.

Last year Troop 374 decided to donate $400 to the Girl Scouts Totem Council's new shelter at River Ranch.

Scouts learn business and sale skills during the cookie campaign, which is now 90 years old.

The scouts, ages 6 to 17, learn how to set goals, develop action plans, teamwork and business ethics.

Developing confidence, public speaking, interpersonal communication, money management, marketing and customer service are also part of the experience.

"Each and every year I know we're training girls to fill all sorts of roles in the future. One of these young ladies may some day become secretary of state, CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a local business owner, or my future replacement," said Grace Chien, CEO of the Girl Scouts Totem Council.

"Through the public's support, $500,000 of last year's cookie program proceeds made it possible to upgrade three existing camp facilities to serve 2,300 girls annually through year round camp usage, create an eight week summer day camp utilizing camp property, expand staff-led programs for underserved populations to reach over 1,500 girls per year and acquire 100 acres in Whatcom County for future camp development," said Chien.

All three scouts and their mothers gathered in a Fremont warehouse on Feb. 2, a day before the official sales began, surrounded by hundreds of boxes of cookies.

"Boy are they so excited. They can't wait to sell the cookies," said mother Peggy Gudgell.

New this year is the "Gift of Caring: Operation Cookie Drop," to benefit Navy personnel aboard the USS Stennis, submarine crews and Navy personnel in military hospitals here and around the world.