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By CityOperation: Cookie Lift 2006
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Operation: Cookie Lift 2006Press Release
2006-09-06
Article Written by: Community Member
OPERATION: COOKIE LIFT 2006
Sunday, September 24 – 8:45 a.m.
Palm Coast, FL – Everyone associates Girl Scouts with the annual sale of cookies, but for the past three years, St. Mark By The Sea Lutheran Church Girl Scout Troop #1116 in Palm Coast have been selling cookies that are delivered half-way around the world. It’s called “Operation: Cookie Lift” and the cookies are sent to our service men and women who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The concept began three years ago with Troop Leaders Dominic & Janice DeZego, and Mark & Linda Klayman approached Rev. Tom Bingol with the idea. “Our congregation is very committed to our service men and women as well as the Veterans in Flagler County. We have held the Annual Four Chaplain’s Service and Armed Forces Recognition Sunday each year for the last eight years. What made this project even more personal was the fact that some of our scouts had parents or relatives serving in Iraq,” says Dominic DeZego. That first year, the Troop was able to send 198 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, and a special relationship was established between the church and the 506th Agile Expeditionary Group (AEG) Chapel in Kirkuk, Iraq. The Chapel runs a respite area for soldiers coming out of the field called the “Oasis” that welcomed the cookies as “A taste of home in the desert.”
Last year, the Troop increased its shipment to 315 boxes and partnered with local Veteran Support organizations, members of the Marine Corp League, American Legion and VFW and their respective Auxiliary units. The girls wrote notes of encouragement on the boxes, and the cookies were boxed up for Iraq. The troop also increased the number of troops it was connecting with by expanding distribution; maintaining its partnership with the 506th Agile Expeditionary Group Chapel in Kirkuk, but adding Chaplains at the US Embassy in Baghdad, the Wing Chaplain of the 376th AEW in Kyrgyzstan, and the 407th AEG in Tallil, Iraq. The Troop was also recognized in 2005 as the recipients of Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary Youth Activity Award.
On Sunday, September 24, 2006, the St. Mark By The Sea Girl Scout Troop #1116 will be recognized for the Third Annual Operation Cookie Lift, at the 8:45 Worship Service. The girls have more than doubled the number of cookies to 640 boxes, and two other troops are joining their efforts, one local and another in Volusia County.
If you would like to be a part of “Operation Cookie Lift 2006” mark your calendar for Sunday, September 24 and join us at the 8:45 AM service. If you would like to donate funds to offset shipping costs, you can make checks payable to “Girl Scouts” and place Operation Cookie Lift in the memo section. We’re located at 303 Palm Coast Pkwy., N.E. in Palm Coast, next to the Sun Trust Bank. Contact us for more information at 386/445-3420, or visit our website at www.stmarkbythesea.org.
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