Girl Scouts offer cookie customers a way to support military troops

     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
     Release Date: 12/20/2005
     Press Contact: Lori Sullivan, 954-739-7660, ext. 219
     
     OAKLAND PARK, FL --- People who wait all year for the Girl Scout cookies they love, will now have a chance to buy a box (or more) for the men and women actively serving in our military. Together with the USO (United Services Organization), Broward County Girl Scout troops will offer customers the opportunity to purchase cookies and designate them to military troops (and their families) with the new ” Cookies From Home” program. The USO in Jacksonville will distribute the Girl Scout cookies to military bases throughout Florida and Georgia.
     
     The new relationship with the USO is an important partnership for the Girl Scouts. “We are so proud of our military service personnel. We feel strongly about providing the community a way to send a ‘sweet thank you’ to these brave individuals who serve and protect our nation every day, “ said Leslie Roth, Girl Scouts CEO. “The USO provides many ‘creature comforts’ of home and what could be more comforting than Girl Scout ‘Cookies From Home?’”
     
     The annual Girl Scouts Cookie Sale Program Activity will take place beginning January 19, 2006 and run until February 9, 2006. The process is simple, cookie customers may buy as many boxes of cookies as they wish, any variety they like, and those boxes will be special ordered and delivered right from the bakery to the USO with no extra shipping costs for the customer. “Cookie Booths” may be found at hundreds of locations all over Broward County. To find a “booth,” contact Mary Ann Boatright at 954-739-7660, ext. 230.
     
     Also new in 2006 is the Café Cookie. Girl Scouts will offer an eighth variety – this is a crisp cookie, caramelized with brown sugar with hint of cinnamon spice – perfect with your favorite warm beverage. The eight cookie varieties offered in 2006 are: Thin Mints: wafer cookies made with natural peppermint and covered with a chocolaty coating; Samoas ®: vanilla cookies covered with caramel, rolled in coconut and striped with a rich chocolaty coating; Do-Si-Dos ®: crunchy oatmeal cookies with creamy peanut butter filling; Tagalongs ®: cookies topped with creamy peanut butter and covered in a chocolaty coating; Trefoils: classic shortbread cookies; All Abouts: shortbread cookies with a rich fudge coating on the bottom; Lemon Coolers ®: crisp vanilla cookies with zesty lemon chips and covered with powdered sugar; and the new Café Cookie: crisp cookies caramelized with brown sugar and a hint of cinnamon spice.
     
     Girl Scout Cookies in Broward County will sell for $3.50 per box. Proceeds from the Cookie Sale Program Activity stay within the Broward community, helping to provide ongoing troop funding, programs, council-sponsored activities, camping and support for training adult volunteers.
     
     For nearly 91 years the Girl Scout Cookie Program has helped girls foster a sense of personal and collective empowerment by promoting skills they will use throughout their entire lives. Through this annual activity, girls learn how to set goals, develop action plans to reach those goals, work together as a team and cultivate a sense of business ethics. Girls also acquire knowledge in money management, marketing and customer service, thereby making the Girl Scout Cookie Program the nation’s premier financial literacy and entrepreneurship program.
     
     Girl Scouts of Broward County, Inc. serves more than 9,000 girls and 4,500 adult volunteers. To learn more about the Girl Scouts of Broward County, including information about registering your girl, adult volunteering or public support opportunities visit www.browardgirlscouts.org.
     
     ###