Cookies for Soldiers

geoff-spawn 2 is a Brownie, and she and her troop have been selling cookies with a vengeance. Yesterday we had the privilege of dropping off nearly 300 boxes of cookies for the military in Iraq – cookies that generous people had bought for the soldiers, rather than for themselves. So my wife, 2 kids, mom, brother and Mr. Matamoros (visiting from SoCal) all headed down to do our small bit to support the troops.

When we got to the drop off location, it was amazing: there were probably 100 volunteers there directing traffic, unloading vehicles, repacking the boxes, and sealing and labeling the boxes for transport. One of the volunteers told me that they estimated that 500 big boxes (each one containing 100 – 200 cookie boxes) were going out that day. Unbelievable.

There was a small group of soldiers there as well, and they had brought a Humvee for the kids to climb all over. Very nice folk (who volunteered to show up), who entertained the kids’ questions with patience and good humor, and who made us all a little teary when it was time to go. We had to drag my daughter away – she wouldn’t stop talking to the poor folk.

I was very impressed with the soldiers, but also with the volunteers, the Girl Scouts organization, and with the American cookie-buying public. If you didn’t get a chance to buy cookies for the military this year, please try again next year. The cookies really do get to the troops, and the troops really appreciate it.

We took a lot of pictures with the soldiers, but I can’t really share them in this post, so here’s me with my stud Brownie posing in front of the Humvee.

And here’s Mr. Matamoros and yours truly in front of the same Humvee. We didn’t do any work, but we couldn’t resist the photo-op.