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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Girl Scouts treat soldiers to cookies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Karen Harper, troop leader and cookie chairwoman for Girl Scout Troop No. 1031, e-mailed the other day with a question that stumped me.
Her pack collected Girl Scout cookies to send to U.S. troops in Iraq. They had to figure out a way to get them there.
“Do you know of anyone we can contact that would help us get these cookies to some well-deserving Americans?” she wrote.
I suggested she contact an American Legion Post. As expected, the veterans found a way.
You may remember a miserably cold Saturday a few weeks back. March 8, I think. We even got a little snow.
Well, the girls of Troop 1031 braved the elements in two booths - one set up outside the Embry Hills Kroger off Chamblee-Tucker Road, the other at a Kroger near Five-Forks Trickum and Rockbridge roads.
Harper’s daughters, Elizabeth, 11, and Katherine, 10, worked the Embry Hills booth for two hours. Then they joined scouts Rachel Samaras and Olivia Dunahoo, both 11, at the other location.
“They stayed till 3 o’clock,” Harper told me. “It was freezing.”
The troop had pre-sold 80 cases of cookies and ordered another 30 for booth sales to the public. The girls decided that, when they manned the booths, they’d ask customers if they cared to donate a few boxes for the soldiers. A lot of customers didn’t buy cookies for themselves. They bought them for the charity.
“When we were at Embry Hills, one lady who bought cookies gave us a letter that her grandson had written for the soldiers,” Harper said. “She asked us to include his letter in the boxes we were shipping.”
The drive collected about 300 boxes of cookies. Harper was able to find a group to ship half of the bounty - Soldier Connection, a charity of American Legion Post 233 in Loganville. It ships care packages to deployed soldiers.
“We ship 50 boxes of donated items every two weeks,” said Jane Brown, a volunteer who helps with packaging.
The charity was to mail a shipment of cookies Monday. The Girl Scout troop plans to pay for delivery of the remaining boxes. Somewhere in Iraq, a group of soldiers soon will have boxes of Samoas and Thin Mints to munch on. They have the cookie queens of Troop 1031 to thank.
“This is what the girls decided to do,” Harper said, noting that only five girls make up the troop. “It was worth it.”
Found teddy bear
On Monday, Deanne Beesley dropped by my office with a teddy bear. She found it Friday at Medlock Bridge Road and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Beesley, an executive liaison to the president at Sterling Industries, a home furnishings company, cleaned “Teddy” up. She wants him returned to his rightful owner.
“He’s lost, and he needs to go home,” she told me.
If Teddy’s yours, or you know who it belongs to, give me a call. He’s sitting on my desk.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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