Halloween, Pizza Hut, and the Girl Scouts–these are a few of my favorite things.
The trio came together in 1989 for a special Halloween fundraiser.
What’s Pizza Hut?
Really? Do I need to explain the popular fast-food chain? Here’s a link if you do.
Halloween Tie-In
In 1989, Pizza Hut offered five Pizza Hut “wooden dollars” for $1 and encouraged adults to pass them out to trick-or-treaters instead of candy.
Any child under 12 could redeem one Pizza Hut wooden nickel for a one-topping personal pan pizza and a small soft drink.
Proceeds from the $1 token sale were divided between the local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. But the contributions was much larger. A personal pan pizza and drink at that time cost nearly $3.00–meaning Pizza Hut was giving away $15 of food per wooden dollar.
The program ran only in select media markets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana. A newspaper from Morgan City, Louisiana, reported that Pizza Hut gave $900 to the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, but it is not clear if that is $900 each.
The pilot program continued in 1990, but that seems to be the end. I
What’s a Wooden Dollar?
It’s a wooden nickel after inflation.
There are two meanings for “wooden nickel.” First, wooden nickels are tokens that can be used as substitutes for real US cash in a very limited market. Think camp dollars–something that can be redeemed only in one place, like a camp trading post.
Second, the phrase, “Don’t take any wooden nickels,” is used to warn people to think twice before making a deal. Designs often depicted cartoonish “indians,” which is regrettable.
Evidently wooden coins also suffer from inflation, as “wooden quarters” were eventually surpassed by “wooden dollars.”
© 2025 Ann Robertson, writer, editor, Girl Scout historian, but NOT a Girl Scout employee.
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