‘A box of cookies’

I know many people within our community buy Girl Scout cookies every year, but I wanted to share this very short story about how a box of cookies can be so important to a unit of soldiers.

On Oct. 8, American Legion Post 488’s sponsored troop, Girl Scout Troop 388, received a visit from First Lt. Joseph Grimm, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Ft. Bragg, N.C.

“Lt. Joe” and his unit were the recipients of hundreds of boxes of cookies sent by Allie, Anusha, Brigid, Fiona, Gabby and Meghan. Those boxes came from people who bought cookies from these six young ladies and, at their request, donated the cookies back to the girls to send to Lt. Joe and his men, who just completed a six-month tour in Afghanistan.

The Post’s contribution to this effort was that we paid to ship the cookies, which allowed to girls to use as part of their sales pitch to cookie donors, “free shipping to Afghanistan.”

They also wrote him letters. Since they knew he lives in Rockland County, they expressed to him the hope that maybe they all could meet someday, since it’s not a long ride.

So when Lt. Joe came back into town to visit his family, and with the limited time he had to be home, you’d think this young man would have a lot of people to see, things to do and lost time to make up with so many.

But what was important for him, as we learned, was that he meet the girls to personally thank them for their kind deed.

In fact, Lt. Joe insisted he travel to Post 488, perhaps so parents wouldn’t have to make the 45-minute trip each way to Rockland on a school day.

Lt. Joe arrived in his dress uniform, with his laptop computer and showed us photos of him and his unit working in Afghanistan, as well as Afghan children and families. He spoke about what they did there, why it was important and answered all kinds of questions.

But then he also spoke about those cookies.

He told them while they certainly had food, they certainly didn’t have “good” food. The cookies, he told them, were very important to his unit.

I remember he said this: “I can’t underestimate to all of you the significance of what you did. It really, really made a difference to us. I cannot thank you enough for what you did. We loved them.”

And as icing on the cake - or maybe on the cookie - he gave them patches to make them honorary members of the 82nd Airborne Division for their efforts.

Kurt Haug, First Vice Commander

American Legion Post 488