Thursday, March 20, 2003

Cape kids sending troops cookies

Published in the Current

They didn’t do it for the fame, and they don’t support war, but two Cape kids are sending Girl Scout cookies to U.S. troops in the Middle East.

After watching the evening television news last week, 11-year-old
twins Jonathan and Lexi Bass were moved to do something to support the troops they had seen interviewed in the Kuwaiti desert.

The soldiers didn’t have much to do, and were feeling both proud and worried about the prospect of serving their country in wartime. Lexi, a Girl Scout, had loads of boxes of Girl Scout cookies in the back hallway ready for delivery, and the pair decided to buy some more for the troops.

Jonathan and Lexi wrote a letter to the people who live in their neighborhood off Mitchell Road, explaining what they had seen on the news and what they wanted to do. They asked for donations, saying the soldiers “were very serious and very nervous” about war, and were in the desert without their families.

It was Tuesday night. By Saturday, neighbors had donated enough money to buy over 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Some neighbors sent notes with their donations, including one from a woman who said she didn’t support the war, but her husband had served in Vietnam, and she wanted to be sure to support the troops.

Jonathan and Lexi spent Sunday packing the cookies up and getting set to send them off, with notes saying “Thinking of you from Cape Elizabeth, Maine.”

Because of increased security, sending unmarked boxes to “any soldier” in the Persian Gulf region is complicated, so the kids are making arrangements to send them through the USO.