By Amy Vitale, Product Sales Manager

Happy 10th Birthday, Operation Cookie Drop!

This year we are excited to celebrate our council-wide Cookie Sale service program here at Girl Scouts – NC Coastal Pines, Operation Cookie Drop. This program allows Girl Scout to collect donations that are used to purchase Girl Scout cookies for our military men and women serving in the US and abroad. We continually hear that the cookies are a welcome taste of home, especially for those stationed thousands of miles away.

Girl Scouts collected enough donations in our first year to purchase 45,000 boxes. And over the last nine years we have shipped almost 700,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to military personnel. This year we are looking to break a new record – our goal is to receive enough donations to purchase 100,000 boxes of cookies!

Cookies will be delivered to the USO of NC centers in Jacksonville and at RDU International airport and NCPacks4Patriots based in Ayden. In addition, cookies will also be distributed to military personnel deployed from U.S. Marine installation Cherry Point in Havelock, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, and U.S. Army base Fort Bragg in Fayetteville.

The Operation Cookie Drop Program gives our Girl Scouts the opportunity to support our military, many of whom are part of our Girl Scout family. Laura Lee Davis, Membership Director for Pamlico, Craven and Carteret counties, shared, “It means an opportunity for us to give back to the military who give so much to us throughout the year, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.”

“They’ve joined the Marine Corps. They get moved all over the country, and if they come to a place like Cherry Point and the greater Havelock area, they really feel that community reach out and touch them, even through cookies. It’s something that they’ll never forget, so we appreciate it,” stated Maj. Gen. Robert Hedelund, commanding general of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing based at Cherry Point, at last year’s Operation Cookie Drop event.

And if that isn’t reason enough, there are some great rewards for girls as well. Every girl who receives enough donations to purchase 15 boxes of cookies receives an awesome Operation Cookie Drop patch. In recognition of the program’s 10^th anniversary, we also have a special patch girls can earn for receiving enough donations for 25 boxes of cookies.

Operation Cookie Drop is a win-win for everyone! Help us reach our goal of 10,000 boxes – support our Girl Scouts, our military, and Operation Cookie drop during this year’s Cookie Sale!