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Deployed Troops to Receive Sweet Treat Overseas
(March 17, 2009) | 
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Brownie Troop 61, from Duluth,
Ga., display the Girl Scout cookies they plan to
send to deployed sevicemembers as part of
“Operation: Taste of Home.” Courtesy photo |
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WASHINGTON, March 13, 2009
Deployed servicemembers in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Kuwait will not
miss out on Girl Scout cookies this year, thanks
to the troop-support group “Hugs
for Our Soldiers”.
The group's first Girl
Scout cookie drive was in 2004. Five years
later, the group continues to partner with Gwen
Lawrence and her Brownie Troop 61 to collect
cookies for “Operation: Taste of Home.”
“I currently have possession of more than 1,000
Girl Scout cookie boxes that have been donated
by churches, civic organizations or placed in
donation boxes in various locations,” Kathy
Orcutt, president of Hugs for Our Soldiers,
said. |
| “The big
numbers will roll in next weekend when the
service units complete their sales. I expect at
least 3,000 more boxes.” |
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As community members purchase their
favorite box of cookies, they are encouraged to show support
to local servicemembers and their local Girl Scouts by
purchasing an extra box or two for deployed troops so they
can enjoy a taste of home.
The cookie drive will end March 22.
“Most of the cookies will be shipped to our troops,” Orcutt
said. “At least a thousand of them will be used here, at
home, to support our ‘Welcome Home' program. We'll place
them in the barracks rooms of single soldiers who will be
returning from deployment at the end of this month and in
April. What a big surprise they will have -- to see that
they didn't miss Girl Scout cookies this year!”
MaKayla White, 10, a member of the Tennessee Junior Troop
741 of the Little River Service Unit, collects cookies for
Orcutt's group, and said she is glad to be participating in
the cookie drive.
“It just makes me feel really good to do something for
them,” MaKayla said. “They are so far away. It's good to
make sure the troops have some snacks. The troops always
love our Girl Scout cookies. We are just so proud of them.”
Orcutt said she believes Girl Scout cookies are among the
most requested snack items for deployed servicemembers.
“Everyone looks forward to this once-a-year sale ...
soldiers included,” Orcutt said. “From the comments and
thank yous we've received, it's apparent to me that when a
soldier opens a box of Girl Scout cookies, takes his first
bite, a memory of home enters his mind.” | |
By Sharon
Foster
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2009
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