Operation Cookie Mania: Guard Support Ships 1,850 Boxes of Cookies to Deployed Troops

Barbara & Noel Kelly. Their son, Specialist Colm Kelly is currently serving  in the 2nd Platoon, Charlie Co., 181 Infantry in Afghanistan

We also arranged for the donation of 960 boxes of cookies from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts Council. This additional donation allowed for each deployed soldier to receive his or her own box of cookies. 

The cookies were packed up by volunteers, comprised mostly of family members of deployed soldiers serving in the 1st Battalion 181st Infantry and the 26th Yankee Brigade. The Operation Cookie Mania pack up and ship project was hosted by the Massachusetts Military Family Assistance Center in Reading. 

Photos by Kristi Pucillo 

Jill Price, Family Assistance Specialist at the Military Family Assistance Center in Reading helped with the project.

Cookies were shipped to 13 FOB's including Camp Phoenix, Lagman, Capman and Wright, as well as to Camp Atterbury, Indiana where the 182nd Infantry Battalion is training for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.  

The cookies are expected to arrive to their destinations before Easter and will be welcomed by our soldiers serving in the 1st Battalion 181st Infantry Regiment, the 26th Signal Company, the 26th Yankee Brigade and the 182nd Infantry Battalion. 

A special thanks to Kristi Pucillo, Family Readiness Group leader of the Charlie Co. FRG for orchestrating Operation Cookie Mania. She was instrumental in picking up donated cookies and coordinating the volunteer pack up and ship effort. 

Girls of parents serving in the 26th Yankee brigade help out.

 

 

Operation Cookie Mania all started with a soldier's mom in New Jersey whose son serves with the Mass. National Guard's 181st Infantry in Afghanistan.

 

Shortly after her son deployed, she put out a small box at her workplace where people could contribute items to her son's unit in Afghanistan. Co-workers and visitors donated so many items that the box overflowed. Then Girl Scout cookie season arrived and boxes of cookies were donated. When some of the local Girl Scout and Brownie troops found out about the "Mom of the Soldier" they brought in their boxes of extra cookies.

 

Over 500 boxes of cookies arrived! This was too much for one Mom to send, so she joined forces with her son's Family Readiness Group - Charlie Co. 181 Infantry FRG. The soldier's Mom and the Girl Scout Troops of New Jersey met up with the Mass. Family Readiness Group at a truck stop in Connecticut for the cookie exchange that initiated Operation Cookie Mania.