Six New Hyde Park Girls Scouts joined scouts from around Nassau County in delivering more than 2,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the U.S. Marine recruitment base in Garden City last Thursday.
And while the marines were beneficiaries, the scouts said the honor was all theirs.
“It’s really fun, You feel really honored to be here,” said Herricks Middle School seventh grader Amanda Fishkin, who single-handedly sold 900 boxes of cookies for service men and woman.
The six New Hyde Park girls sold 1,650 boxes between them and were given the honor of making the delivery as part of what has been dubbed Operation Cookie based on their success in selling the cookies.
Five girls from Park Association Troop 1099 sold 750 boxes of cookies with four of them joining Fishkin in their delivery to the troops at 605 Stewart Ave. A fifth member of the group couldn’t make the event.
“We wanted to sell as many as we could to support the troops,” said Troop 1099 Girl Scout Larissa Scandura, an eighth grader at Kellenberg Memorial High School. “It made me feel good that I was doing this for people who are fighting.”
The Marines said they appreciated the Girl Scouts’ efforts.
“The Marines love the Girl Scout cookies. They’ve been asking me for months ‘When are the Girl Scout Cookies coming?’” Cpl. Kristin Moreno, a Marine public affairs official, told the girls.
Both Amanda and Larissa said they were inspired by grandfathers who fought in World War II. Larissa said her uncle Bruce is a Vietnam veteran as well.
The objectives of the scouts were the same, but their sales tactics were distinctly different.
Amanda’s approach was a combination of guile and stealth, as she borrowed her father’s cell phone – once while he slept – and called a roster of his contacts among high-ranking officers in the New York Police Department.
After far exceeding her initial goal of selling 500 boxes of cookies, the 12-year-old member of Girl Scout Troop 1856 was reaching for 1,000 when she called the same contact list a second time.
“I tried to get as much as I could before I doubled my calls. Some people forgot they bought cookies and they bought them again,” she said.
“I’m proud of what she accomplished,” said her father, Stuart Fishkin.
Four of the girls from Troop 1099 – Larissa Scandura, Ciara Lennon, Olivia Le, and Mariya Thanawala – are eighth graders at New Hyde Park Memorial High School. The fifth troop member to participate in the delivery, Michelle Wisnewski, is an eighth grader at Buckley Country Day School.
Each week they made pitches for the purchase of the cookies at the end of Sunday masses at Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church. Their appeals “to remind them of a piece of home” drew $2,500 from the Holy Spirit parishioners. They also pitched cookies purchases for the military to family and friends.
“We collected a lot of money,” Larissa said.
“They always go above and beyond for our U.S. Military,” said Troop 1099 co-leader Mary Lennon.
Each girl also bought two boxes of cookies to send to Dennis and Peter Clark, the sons of Mineola Fire Department Chief Jeffrey Clark and friends of Ciara’s brother.
“They take their Girl Scout Promise very seriously, to serve God and their country,” said Troop 1099 co-leader Marie Scandura.
The girls formed a line to pass the cartons of cookies along from a truck that delivered them to a flatbed Marine vehicle.
“These things are heavy,” one of them said.
The Marines appreciated their effort.
Sgt. Malik King commanded a color guard that came out to greet the girls, who recited the pledge of allegiance and the Girl Scout pledge.
When asked if he liked the Girl Scout cookies, King, smiling broadly, said, “I ate a lot of them last year.”
King and his three color guard colleagues answered the Girl Scouts’ questions about what they do on the base.
Moreno and a contingent of female Marines also answered the Girl Scouts’ questions about their service.
Donna Cervalo, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County, said Operation Cookie sales were up 20 percent this year, with 60,000 boxes of cookies shipped overseas, eclipsing last year’s total of 50,000 boxes sold.
“This is a very tangible way of saying, ‘Thank you, we’re thinking of you’,” she told the Marines.
Amanda’s individual efforts was recognized last month when she received a citation from Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
Mangano’s staff, she said, read about her effort in an article in the New Hyde Park Herald Courier and reached her parents via e-mail.
“That was really amazing. It was really nice of them to do that,” Amanda said.
Amanda and the Troop 1099 girls all said they’re committed to sell as many cookies as possible in next year’s Operation Cookie.
