Photo By Adam Holguin | American Red Cross staff, Girl Scouts and Soldiers load some of the 24,000 boxes of...... read more read more
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Soldiers, the American Red Cross and Girl Scouts from the Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest converged onto Silas L. Copeland Arrival/Departure Airfield Control Group June 2, to complete the 2016 Gift of Caring, the Girl Scouts effort to provide cookies to Soldiers who are deployed.
“Today is one of my favorite days of the year because our Girl Scouts across our 94,000 square miles have sold 24,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to send to Soldiers,” said Diane Flanagan, CEO, Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest. “The Girl Scouts love doing it and the public, our community, enjoy supporting our Soldiers.”
For the 10th year, during the cookie season Girl Scouts from around the region sold cookies and took donations to provide the sweet treat to deployed Soldiers.
“They have sold over a million boxes total in our council, but 24,000 are here today to get to Soldiers,” Flanagan said.
The American Red Cross received the cookies and will take on the mission of getting cookies into the hands of deployed Soldiers.
“We are happy they thought of us to be the facilitator,” said Lisa Boline, assistant station manager, American Red Cross, Fort Bliss, Texas. “Naturally, we have a great outlet to distribute the cookies: we do 24/7 flight line support of all deploying and redeploying service members, (including) activated National Guard and Reservists, our active duty Fort Bliss troops, and CONUS Replacement Center troops as well. So we are a great outlet to get these cookies out to the troops.”
Soldiers assigned to the 2218th and 2220th Mobilization Support Battalions respectively, the 642nd Regional Support Group and 5th Armored Brigade, assisted the Girl Scouts loading the cookies from pallets into a conex – a military shipping container – staged at the ADACG. The Soldiers assigned to these units are on missions to assist in the mobilization, training and redeployment of National Guard and Reserve Soldiers who process here en route to assignments across the globe.
“We are receiving these on behalf of the Red Cross, just helping off-load them. The Red Cross will be issuing them out to Soldiers that will be going to various places – Afghanistan, Cuba, Africa or any mission that this facility supports,” said Sgt. Maj. John Miles, logistics noncommissioned officer in charge, 642nd RSG.
The collective efforts of Girl Scouts throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico have raised enough goodies to bring a smile to many Soldiers.
“When you talk to a Soldier and they tell you how much it means to them to have that piece of home with them when overseas, it just brings a piece of America, and it’s our small way to say thank you for their service to our country,” Flanagan said.
Miles is one of the many Soldiers who received Girl Scout cookies while across the pond.
“I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2009-10 and they were at the USOs and other places … it was a taste of home and it really means a lot,” Miles said.
Jennifer Westrick raised the most cookies, collecting 386 boxes on her own.
“It makes me feel really happy that I could help somebody that saves our country,” Westrick said.
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2016 17:48 |
| Story ID: | 200964 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Hometown: | EL PASO, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Special Delivery: Girl Scouts donate cookies to deployed service members, by Adam Holguin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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