April 22, 2014
On Friday, April 19, Product Program Operations Manager Melinda Prickett and Product Program Specialist Lynn Salyers from the Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council visited Military Veterans Resource Center’s Headquarters–but they didn’t arrive empty-handed. They showed up in a van filled with 136 cases of girl scout cookies for MVRC’s veterans. After four large cartloads and the labor of Prickett, Salyers, and three MVRC staff members, all the cookies were transported safe and unbroken to MVRC’s foodbank. Made possible by the Council’s Operation Salute cookie program, MVRC is one of many organizations to receive a generous donation of cookies from the Girl Scouts. “We delivered to everybody from Operation Buckeye to the VA hospital in Columbus,” says Salyers. “We delivered to Portsmouth, Mansfield, and Chillicothe–we stretched from one side of the state to the other.” Last year, the Council started the Operation Salute program as a way for girl scouts to give back to Ohio’s service men and women. While they were out selling cookies, the girls could ask for a $4 donation (the price of one box) for Operation Salute, and the money would go towards providing cookies to organizations that help military members. Some boxes are even shipped to troops overseas. By the end of cookie season last year, Operation Salute delivered 6,000 boxes of cookies to Ohio’s military members. This year, that number more than tripled, and the girl scouts raised enough money to deliver 21, 600 boxes of cookies. “We plan on doing this again next […]