By Allison Perrine
MONMOUTH COUNTY – Knowing that the COVID-19 pandemic brings stress and anxiety to many families and individuals, Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore is sweetening the day with cookie deliveries to frontline workers.
So far, the organization has delivered over 70,000 cookie boxes to hospital workers, food banks and first responders, thanks to donations from businesses and individuals. The goal is to deliver an additional 100,000 boxes to essential workers in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
“COVID-19 may have halted annual spring cookie booth sales, but it can’t stop Girl Scouts from their mission of giving back to the community,” said Eileen Higgins, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore. “We are proud of our Girl Scout troops for all they’ve done to bring bites of joy to essential workers and volunteers, and truly grateful to all who have generously supported their efforts.”
In a typical year, the Girl Scouts host a Gift of Caring program that lets people purchase cookies which are directly donated to food banks and military personnel. On average, Girl Scouts deliver 35,000 boxes annually through the program. But their latest efforts amid COVID-19 have more than doubled that number, one they hope to continue to grow.
The Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, which serves 10,000 girls across the two counties, began their mission as soon as the pandemic hit. Scouts who would normally be out in store parking lots and other public venues selling cookies turned to family, friends and neighbors, asking them to purchase these “boxes of love” and donate them to essential workers, said Higgins.
To take it a step further, the Girl Scout council launched the Girl Scout Cookie Relief Fund, inviting residents and businesses to make donations. The fund helps the Scouts continually deliver cookies to the frontlines, while also supporting the Scout organization.
“Donors can think of their gift as a ‘thank you’ to our selfless frontline workers and volunteers and feel good knowing that they are supporting the goals of 10,000 girls wanting to make a community impact,” Higgins said.
She added that the young Scouts have shown great resiliency and creativity during this trying time. “They started by creating their own virtual cookie booths,” she said. “It’s the normal things that they were doing and it’s a way to stay involved.”
In the Two River area, Stephen Chagares, M.D., heard about what the Girl Scouts were doing and decided to help out. He helped deliver more than 400 boxes of cookies to workers in the emergency rooms and intensive care units at Hackensack Meridian’s Monmouth and Riverview medical centers and at medical sites providing COVID-19 testing.
When he heard about what the Girl Scouts were going through, he knew he wanted to help. As a father of a former Scout, Chagares understood that profits from cookie sales go directly to the girls’ scholarships and programs.
“I like the idea of supporting girls and having them realize that they should move ahead and be leaders and do all of these things,” said Chagares. With that in mind, he looked at this as a potential “win-win-win”: supporting Girl Scouts, frontline workers and one another.
The Chagares family made the donations to the hospitals on Easter, which typically would otherwise have been spent with family. “It was a nice way to remember that you can do something nice for people on a day where it was otherwise going to be a big family day,” he said. “That’s really the whole concept of Easter and Easter week,” he said helping others.
Representatives of OceanFirst Bank, which has branches in Red Bank and Shrewsbury, and OceanFirst Foundation are supporting the Relief Fund by donating 10,000 boxes of cookies to the FulFill food bank. OceanFirst employees will also be visiting the Girl Scouts of Farmingdale next week to help add labels to the cookie boxes and to prepare them for delivery.
Members of the Deal Golf and Country Club helped support the fund by buying out the cookie inventory of two troops and suggesting that the Scouts donate them locally; those donated cookies went to Jersey Shore University Medical Center and fire and police personnel in Deal.
“This was a great solution all around,” Higgins said. “The girls successfully completed their cookie season and were so happy to share kindness with hospital heroes and Deal’s first responders, all thanks to the kindness of members from the Deal Golf and Country Club.
The Girl Scout Cookie program is not just about providing people with an enjoyable treat, Higgins said. It’s also a way to teach young girls how to be entrepreneurs and leaders, and how to fund their community projects.
Earning badges are also a big part of Girl Scouts and girls can continue to do so virtually during the shutdown. According to Higgins, a “Badge in the Box” program launched last week allowing Scouts to continue working toward badges. Scouts receive a box with everything they need to complete a project and earn a specific badge. As of this week, Brownie Boxes are sold out, said Higgins.
Anyone interested in supporting the Girl Scout Cookie Relief Fund can visit gsfun.org/cookierelief.
