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thedrifter
04-08-06, 06:45 AM
Posted on Sat, Apr. 08, 2006
Sweet treat on its way to Marines
Brownies ship 68 boxes of donated cookies to Iraq
By Becky Manley
The Journal Gazette

Brownie Troop 210 packs up Girl Scout cookies on Friday to send to Marines in Iraq. Sixty-eight boxes were donated by customers who bought extra cookies to send to the troops. The troop also sent signs and cards along with the treats.

Lance Cpl. Matthew Young and his fellow Marines in the 3/5 Weapons Company are in for one sweet surprise, compliments of a local Brownie troop.

On Friday, about 10 girls from Brownie Troop 210 gathered at the UPS Store on Dupont Road and packed 68 boxes of Girl Scout cookies so they could be shipped to the Marines.

The project began last year on a smaller scale when the troop sent six boxes of cookies to a soldier , said Catherine Kile, one of the troop’s “Cookie Moms.” She heard those cookies were quickly distributed among the soldiers. So, this year, the troop expanded the project and offered regular cookie customers the opportunity to buy extra boxes of cookies for the troops.

The idea was as popular as Thin Mints, resulting in the purchase of 68 boxes of cookies for servicemen between the start of the 2006 cookie sale on Jan. 14 and its end on March 13.

“It just kept growing,” Kile said.

Because security restrictions require packages to be sent to a specific serviceman, Kile kept an ear out for word of a local serviceman who might be willing to help distribute the cookies. She spread the word at the Oyster Bar, where she works, and heard about a regular customer who had a son serving in Iraq. She quickly connected with Ken Young, whose son had shipped out to Iraq in January for his first tour of service.

When Kile told Ken Young about the project, he thought it was grand.

“Anything that brings home to them, no matter how minute, will be well received,” Ken Young said.

Matthew Young was given a heads up that “some” cookies would be en route to him and that he’s to hand them out to his fellow Marines, but his dad said his son had no clue how many boxes of sweets were involved.

“He knows there’s some cookies coming,” Ken Young said. “He has no clue there are 68 boxes.”

As an added bonus, the Brownies also packed birthday cards for Matthew Young, who will turn 20 on April 14.

“Hopefully, he’ll get a box for himself,” Ken Young said.

The industrious girls of Troop 210 packed the cookies in about 30 minutes Friday. Among the Brownies was Carolyn Kile, 9, who shared her reaction to the project when she first heard of it.

“I was really excited,” said Carolyn Kile, who expects the Marines to have a similar reaction.

It cost $67.86 to ship the cookies, but that tab was paid by a group of businessmen from Pine Valley Country Club, Catherine Kile said.

Catherine Kile said the most popular cookies picked by customers for the troops were the peanut butter sandwich cookies and the cookies with the confectionary message “Thanks a Lot” written on them.

Troop Leader Joyce Walus said she was surprised by the success of this year’s project, and that it offers the girls encouragement to do it again next year.

“It was really a neat thing to see,” Wallus said.

bmanley@jg.net

Ellie