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Brownies sell cookies to ship to soldiers
(by Karen F. Mrnarevic - April 02, 2008)
Westwood Brownie Troop 1501’s leader, Lee Russo, had been looking for ways he and his scouts could remind troops stationed in and that they are not forgotten. He began to research ways in which his troop of four girls could contribute in some way to the armed forces. As Girl Scout cookie season approached, it dawned on him: What better way to bring a smile to the face of a soldier far from home than to send a box of those classic, comforting American treats?
The first step was to bring the idea up to the adults who oversee scouting throughout the area. Russo suggested they band together to donate hundreds, even thousands of boxes of cookies to the troops. Upon further investigation, however, Russo discovered that this was an unrealistic concept, due to high shipping rates and strict rules governing shipping methods and quantities to military bases.
Back to square one, Russo turned to the members of his congregation at the Ramapo Reformed Church in Mahwah for any advice on how to send cookies to the troops. He was in luck; it turned out that Debbie Grob, the wife of the church’s minister, had already formed a group with other members of the church and was actively involved in efforts to ship care packages to troops free of charge.
The group calls itself “Mahwah Military Moms,” and consists of mothers of troops serving abroad in and , as well as other places, such as . The group was founded about two years ago by two Mahwah mothers, whose children were Marines stationed in the
Middle East .
“They drove around Mahwah asking for contributions and donations,” Grob says, and then packaged and shipped personal care items to their children. Word spread and the group grew, and now, says Grob, there are over a dozen members of the military on their shipping list. It should be noted that the military only accepts shipments if they are addressed to specific people on military bases, so it is important to have a list of names of soldiers to whom to send supplies.
Although the girls in troop 1501 are only 9 years old and don’t know very much about the details of the war, Russo says that it wasn’t difficult to get them interested in sending cookies to the troops. “We just tried to tell the girls that these soldiers need love and support… they don’t have much, they are out in the desert, so we should send them something to remind them of home.”
The girls ended up selling a total of 72 boxes of cookies for the soldiers. They spent a day decorating the boxes with all kinds of cheerful messages and pictures, “so when they [the soldiers] get it, they have a smile on their face,” says Russo. Asked if the girls were going to receive a merit badge for their hard work, Russo says that they hadn’t even thought about being rewarded. “They were just doing a good deed,” he says.
For more information on how to go about setting up a troop-relief group or shipping supplies to members of the armed forces, e-mail Mahwah Military Moms at mahwahmarinemoms@yahoo.com.
Karen F. Mrnarevic's e-mail address is Mrnarevic@northjersey.com.
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