Operation cookie boxes drop

Tag : Cookie Boxes

Sailors from Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCHB)8, stationed at Fort Dix, N.J., assisted hundreds of Westchesterand Putnam County Girl Scout Troops in loading over 40,000 boxes ofGirl Scout cookies June 14 in Valhalla.

The seventh annual "Operation Cookie Drop" netted over6,000 additional boxes this year as cookie donations were collectedfrom local residents during the annual Girl Scout cookie drive.

"It's bigger and better each year," said Alison Bergman,the program's volunteer coordinator from Ardsley, N.Y. "Everyyear, I wish it were the last because I want the guys back here,and you look at the girls and their parents and the Sailors andthere is so much enthusiasm. We have to keep doing it. It is thebest event we do all year."
The volunteers boxed the cookies and loaded them aboard two Navytrucks for transport to Philadelphia where the boxes will be loadedaboard a ship transiting to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.The cookies will be distributed to men and women deployed insupport of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Maritime Security Operationsin the Persian Gulf.

Many of the Sailors from NCHB 8 received cookies while deployed theprevious year and were happy to assist this year to ensure thatother service members enjoyed the delicious treats.

"I served in Iraq last year and received cookies, and I knowhow much it means to receive them," said Cmdr. Mike Futrell,commanding officer, NCHB 8. "It feels good to be on this endof it and I will certainly be here next year. I wouldn't missthis."

"I think everyone seems pumped, but tired from the heat,"said Storekeeper 2nd Class John Tinney, a Sailor with NCHB 8.

Many of the parents reminded their children that it was much hotteroverseas where the service members were deployed. A great deal ofconcern was expressed over whether certain types of cookies wouldmelt. The Sailors reassured everyone that the cookies would beenjoyed no matter how they arrived.

"It's kind of fun and hard work," said Birna Medina, a9-year-old from White Plains, N.Y. "There are all of thesestacks of cookies and you carry them from your house here and thento the trucks."