The Plus Side: Egg Harbor Township Girl Scouts seek help with cookies for soldiers

Press of Atlantic City - Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2014 11:29 pm
Full Story: http://goo.gl/4MpNG3
Steven Lemongello, Staff writer

Sgt. Daniel Freeman and the rest of the 150th Engineering Co. of the New Jersey Army National Guard are missing out on an important American tradition as they serve overseas in Afghanistan — Girl Scout cookie season.

So his daughters, Oona, 8, and Aoife, 6, and their Girl Scout troops are looking to directly help out their local service people. Brownie Troop 12474 and Daisy Troop 11017, of Egg Harbor Township, are collecting donations to buy each member of the 150th a box of cookies and have them all delivered to them personally.

“We were upset he missed cookie season, so we decided to have them earn a badge for giving back to the community by buying the cookies and physically sending them to the 150th,” said Jennifer Freeman, of Pleasantville.

The Girl Scouts have a program in which cookies are sent overseas, but the system doesn’t send them to specific units.

“We wanted to keep the giving local and give back to soldiers in our area,” Freeman said. “They’re away from home and missing Girl Scout cookie time.”

The response so far has been “awesome,” Freeman said. “People will say, ‘Oh, we’ve already bought some,’ and the girls will tell them, ‘Well, if you’d like to donate some to the troops ...’”

With another 10 boxes Thursday, the scouts have collected enough to buy 80 boxes at $4 each, “and there are 108 guys and girls over there,” Freeman said. “They’re excited that we’re so close to our goal of one box per soldier.