LIMA —The Girl Scouts of Western Ohio (GSWO) collected more than 6,750 cases of donated cookies, during the 2017 Girl Scout Cookie Program, and is partnering with Heroes in Action in Toledo for the 12th year to provide Girl Scout Cookies to members of the military and their families. That’s nearly 81,000 packages donated through the “Operation Cookie” program, a GSWO community service project.
“Throughout the recent Girl Scout Cookie Program, our girls did a fantastic job asking customers to purchase additional packages of cookies to be donated to a designated organization or military group,” said Ashley Thoreen, product sales team leader for GSWO. “Over 1,900 troops participated in ‘Operation Cookie’ this year, and over 230 girls donated 50-plus packages each!”
Heroes in Action includes the delicious treats in care packages for military personnel serving overseas and distributes them throughout the year to the National Guard, the 180th, as well as local military families and veterans. Many girls/troops include cards and letters of friendship and support in their donated cookies.
“We are extremely fortunate to be the organization that Girl Scouts chooses to support,” said Dawn Heisler, Director of Heroes in Action. “I get a lot of emails from all over asking if we have cookies, Girl Scout cookies we can send overseas. A unit up in Alaska found us while surfing the web and asked if we had Girl Scout cookies.”
In addition to the Girl Scout Cookies donated through Heroes in Action, local troops also donated over 13,500 packages of cookies to various organizations across western Ohio.
“Operation Cookie is one of my favorite components of the Girl Scout Cookie program,” said Thoreen. “We are able to donate thousands of Girl Scout Cookie packages to our soldiers and local organizations, and our girls learn about philanthropy and the power of giving back to their local communities.”
Go-getter girls wishing to join Girl Scouts and participate in the Girl Scout Cookie Program in 2018 can visit gswo.org/join or call the regional Girl Scout Service Center at 888-350-5090.
