Girl Scouts offer troops a taste of home

American soldiers in Afghanistan will soon receive a special treat from Maryville's Girl Scout Troop 8307.

For the second consecutive year, the troop is sending boxes of Girl Scout cookies overseas.

Each package is personalized with a drawing by Scout Ella Johnson depicting a soldier handing a box of cookies to an Afghani girl.

A group of Brownie Scouts spent part of Tuesday afternoon taping cards featuring the drawing and a return address onto outgoing cookie boxes. The return address is being included in hopes that some of the soldiers will write back.

Each of the 177 boxes will go to a soldier from the 1-129th Field Artillery Regiment, which is headquartered in Maryville.

A luxury item, and a comforting reminder of home, Girl Scout cookies are a hot commodity for soldiers at war. But last year's shipment from Troop 8307 almost didn't make it.

The plane carrying the treats crashed. However, the cookies remained intact and were delivered a few weeks later.

The Girl Scouts' Cookie Share program is part of a nationwide effort to send comforting items to soldiers stationed in Afghanistan or other parts of the world.

Troop 8307 co-leaders Maureen Gallagher and Lesley Schulte said that after they learned about the program and decided to participate, they found a local soldier that could give the cookies to soldiers from Maryville.

"We had a father of one of our scouts that told us about how excited our troops get about Girl Scout cookies," Gallagher said.

"So we thought that would be a good way to support them."

The two leaders started a Facebook campaign that resulted in cookie donations from people in 14 states. Then, the troop used money from their popcorn booth at the Nodaway County Fair to raise money for shipping. The girls also made and sold apple pies at Hy-Vee last September.

The effort is part of the troop's quest to earn a Journey Award. One requirements is to "make the world a better place," a phrase that is written above the drawing taped to each box of cookies.