Marine Band San Diego’s brass quintet serenades Girl Scouts at Operation Thin Mint, an annual mission that has sent nearly one million boxes of cookies to troops overseas. Photo by: Staff Sgt. Jeff Janowiec
Posted on 05/18/2006 5:23:59 PM PDT by SandRat
MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (May 19, 2006) -- Marine Band San Diego sent a delegate of five Marines to the locally harbored USS Midway on Saturday where they provided patriotic music for the Girl Scout Operation Thin Mint 2006 Sendoff Celebration.
Girl Scouts by the hundreds, troop leaders and parents gathered on the large carrier’s deck and surrounded the center stage waving miniature American flags while the brass quintet played patriotic music. The girls met on the ship as a formal way to send massive quantities of cookies sold throughout the year to the troops deployed overseas.
Bill Donovan from Chula Vista, Calif. said his daughter’s Troop 5902 sold more than 1,000 boxes to help support the cookie drive for the troops.
“The gal who’s tops in our troop sold over 400 boxes,” said Donovan.
Although 1,000 was a hefty number of boxes, it was only half of that of the top cookie-selling Troop 1491, which sold 2,006 boxes for the effort.
Combined, the 30,000 girls and 10,000 adult volunteers in the San Diego-Imperial Council, Inc. Girl Scouts sold an impressive 194,762 boxes of cookies, according to Mary Doyle, the council’s director of communications.
The cookies will be sent overseas in five refrigerated containers, via the military logistics system, to places where troops are in Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, Korea and Singapore, according to Doyle.
She also said that a shipment of cookies took port and departed from Singapore on Sunday and should reach its destination of Bahrain on May 24 after a stop at the United Arab Emirates.
One of the guest speakers at the event was a veteran of current operations overseas Maj. Gen. Michael R. Lehnert, commanding general, Marine Corps Installations West, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.
He told the girls many of the cookies would be smashed up and some would be melted by the time they reached their destinations, and that it didn’t matter to the troops.
“It matters to them that you thought enough to send them,” said Maj. Gen. Lehnert.
He mentioned they would still eat the cookies whether they were smashed up or not.
Girl Scouts wrote notes during Operation Thin Mint that were sent along with the cookies to support the troops in their efforts during the War on Terror.
“This is a community service project to give the troops a taste of home and a note to show we care,” said Doyle.
She remarked that since the operation started, the girls have sold and distributed more than 800,000 boxes of cookies, and she was confident they would sell and send their one millionth box in 2007.
To end the ceremony, the top cookie-selling Troop 1491’s girls were escorted to a sleek, private helicopter on the aft of the ship’s deck as the Marine brass quintet played “The U.S. Air Force March” to send them off for a trip around San Diego. The group of about 1,000 people waved their flags and cheered as the helicopter rose and whirled off the carrier.
Marine Band San Diego’s brass quintet serenades Girl Scouts at Operation Thin Mint, an annual mission that has sent nearly one million boxes of cookies to troops overseas. Photo by: Staff Sgt. Jeff Janowiec
YUMMMMMM!!!! Girl Scout Cookies!!!!!
BTTT
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