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Saline County Girl Scouts send donated cookies to local soldiers |
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Saturday, 01 March 2008 |
 SALINE COUNTY GIRL SCOUTS load a donation of 1,700 boxes of cookies into a trailer at the National Guard Armory on Fairfield Road in Benton Thursday. The cookies will be sent to the 39th Infantry Brigade in Mississippi where the soldiers are awaiting deployment to Iraq. From left in front are Mattie and Ashley Barnett and Riley Wells; middle row, Morgan Brown, Rachael Barnett, Becky Rand and Kim Rand; back row, Lindsay Mitchell, Allison Porterfield, Savanna Simpson, Sgt. 1st Class Steve Griffin, Jessie Slover, Joni Fisher, Glenda Loobey and Dannie Shaw. By Matt Burks
Courier Staff The Saline County Girl Scouts collected 1,700 boxes of cookies on Thursday — donated over the past several weeks — to distribute to 39th Infantry Brigade soldiers currently stationed in Mississippi awaiting deployment to Iraq.
“The idea to do this project came from a parent of a Girl Scout member,” Toni Slover, unit service manager, said. “Ann Barnett said her brother [Alan Eakens of Benton] was going to be deployed, and he was really down about it. We all discussed it and Ann came up with the idea to send the Girl Scout cookies. We decided this would be a good way to cheer up all the soldiers in the 39th who are going to Iraq.”
The goal of the Saline County Service Unit, which serves around 200 girls, was to collect 3,700 boxes of cookies to give to every soldier in the group. The name of the project was called “From Our Troops to Yours” and the plan was to collect as many cookie donations as possible by Feb. 20.
The Scouts immediately went to work calling or visiting businesses, friends and neighbors. Although the group fell short of its goal, Slover said everyone is still excited about the number of donations they received. She said she is proud of the girls’ hard work.
“Several troops worked really, really hard,” Slover said. “The amount of support we received in the community was just incredible. I was constantly getting phone calls about it ... It was just a tremendous outpouring by the community.”
Slover said that she also found out that many people in Saline County have relatives in the 39th Infantry Brigade and she received many calls of thanks for the project.
“The 39th is out of here in Arkansas and everyone here seems to have a relative in it,” Slover said. “We received many calls from people here who said that they heard from their brothers, sisters or grandchildren ... They all said that they were thrilled when they found out about getting the cookies. Ann also said that her brother’s spirits were really lifted when he found out about it.”
The Saline County Girl Scouts also hope to receive correspondence from the soldiers. A “thank you” note with a return address to a post offffice box in Benton was included with each box of cookies, Slover said.
“The soldiers overseas really appreciate any contact with people back home,” Slover said “We just want to say thank you to all the business and individuals who made contributions.”
Bryan Barnett planned to leave Benton today to deliver the cookies to the soldiers in Mississippi.
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