Tired of BAD news??

"Cookies don camouflage before reaching troops "

By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/13/08

"Girl Scout cookies are hot commodities for soldiers serving overseas.

Just ask the Girl Scouts at Woodward Academy.

They know that the 635 boxes of cookies they collected for those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan could get commandeered if they mail them in the cardboard cases with the Girl Scout logo on the outside.

"They don't make it there in the original case," said Patty McIver, the director of 135 Scouts in the nine troops at Woodward Academy.

The cookies "disappear" en route, which is to say, disappear down someone else's gullet.

"We have to repack them" in nondescript cases, McIver said.

And that is what some of the girls were busy doing last Friday with the latest batch of cookies headed for faraway places.

The cookie drive is part of Woodward Cares, a public service program coordinated by Sandy Adamek, a teacher with the school. The cookie-relief project came about when one of the girls had a relative serving in the armed forces overseas. It grew to include school alumni who were serving in the armed forces. Woodward is a private school of about 2,900 students based in College Park.

Now, the cookie program is sending packages to soldiers with no connection to the school.

"Last year, we learned about this soldier serving in kind of a deserted area," Adamek said. "[His 1,000-member outfit] didn't have much of what they needed, and they weren't even connected to Woodward."

But the school adopted them and let them know they weren't forgotten. Last Christmas, students sent them 50 boxes of toiletries and treats. The soldiers are in line to get cookies, now that cookie selling season is wrapping up.

McIver said many Scouts took fliers with them when knocking on doors or talking to friends on sales calls. The flier explained that customers could buy a box for themselves and a box to share, that is, donated to the soldiers.

That turned some non-buyers into paying customers, McIver said.

"My daughter had about 10 sales to people who didn't keep any of the cookies for themselves," she said.

Christi Seifring, the mother of Army Capt. Brian O. Brennan, who is a 1996 Woodward graduate, said, "God bless [Adamek] and the group at Woodward. They sent at least a box for every soldier in his troop last year."

Brennan was serving in Afghanistan.

"They got this influx of cookies. They don't even have access to hot water there, much less cookies." '

GOOD NEWS and big hearts are alive and well in this country!! :)