Girl Scouts, service members and volunteers help form an assembly line to unload a truck full of Girl Scout Cookies being donated to Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, April 9,
2012. Roughly 2,000 cases of cookies were donated to Atterbury by
Girl Scouts of Central Indiana as part of Operation Cookie Drop, a
nationwide Girl Scouts of America program that donates cookies to
service members around the world. Photo by Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Scotten |
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EDINBURGH, Ind. (4/10/2012) – Eleven girls from Girl Scouts of
Central Indiana came to Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training
Center, April 9, spreading joy in the form of over 2,000 cases of
Girl Scout Cookies to be distributed to soldiers on the
installation.
According to Mandy Curry, product sales manager
for Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, the cookies were provided by
Indiana residents who opted to pay extra for cookies to be donated
to service members.
“When the girls sell the cookies, they
always ask customers if they would like to donate money for cookies
to be donated to troops,” said Curry. “This year our customers have
donated about 6,200 cases of cookies to the military.”
The
donation was part of a nationwide Girl Scouts campaign called
Operation Cookie Drop, which has donated about 74,000 cases of
cookies to service members worldwide this year.
Before coming
to Atterbury, the Girl Scouts first stopped at Joint Forces
Headquarters in Indianapolis and donated roughly 4,200 cases of
cookies to be distributed to Indiana National Guard units all over
the state. The cookies dropped at Atterbury later in the day were
for the soldiers working on the installation, as well as the
soldiers and civilians that deploy and redeploy here.
Riley
Helms, a 10-year-old Girl Scout who has been in the Girl Scouts of
Central Indiana for half her life, personally sold over 1,000 boxes
of cookies this year and then went on to help other Girl Scouts
reach their |
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sales goals as well. She said she was proud not only of what she
does in the Girl Scouts, but also of being able to support service
members. |
“It made me feel really good because my uncle was in the
military and we sent him cookies and he said he was glad to
have them, so I thought other people would like them, too,”
said Helms.
Of the cookies donated to Camp Atterbury, many of them were sent to the USO
building here because it is already frequented by deploying
and redeploying soldiers here. Duane Straw, CEO and
president of the USO of Indiana, said he was extremely
pleased with the donation from the Girl Scouts.
“There are a couple things we are going to do with [the
cookies],” said Straw. One is that we are going to put them
in our lounge because the soldiers here, just like everyone
else in the country, love Girl Scout Cookies. Secondly, we
are going to be sending some with troops that are going
overseas and putting them in care packages.”
Straw
expounded on how it felt that the Girl Scouts were so
generous as to donate the cookies, especially in such
quantities, to help the USO support service members abroad.
Straw said, “It's just wonderful. It's just great that
we can show the troops they really are appreciated, and it
means so much to them because it's coming from America's
youth.”
By Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Scotten
Camp Atterbury Public Affairs
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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