Girl Scout thanks communities for supporting cookie donations

HOWELL -- My name is Marisa, and I am a senior in high school and in my last year of Girl Scouts. I am so appreciative of all of my loyal customers, who have helped support me throughout my years of selling cookies, buying every year and helping to make each season a success. Thank you so very much!

In March, I was on track for reaching my cookie-selling target and had almost 3,000 boxes sold when the pandemic hit, which disrupted Girl Scouts’ booth sales.

I wanted to still help in any small way I could and thought it would be nice to be able take some of my cookie inventory and donate boxes of them to first responders and healthcare workers to show some small gesture of appreciation for all they were doing during this terrible time.

I created a couple of different fliers and distributed them on social media and visited many local businesses to hand deliver the fliers and speak with the owners and managers about what I was trying to accomplish.

I also set up a Venmo account to be able to accept payment in a safe way. I would follow up with the businesses with phone calls, and I was happy to see that there were so many kind and generous people and businesses who wanted to help support me in giving back to our frontline workers.

Thanks to the generosity of these kind people I was able to donate 400 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to these amazing frontline workers during the pandemic. I just wanted to recognize and say “thank you” to everyone who helped support me on this cause.

Many thanks to the individuals who purchased my cookies for donation and the following businesses. In Howell and Farmingdale: Tenth and Willow, Twin Ponds, Ivy League Restaurant, Big City Bagels, Luigi's Pizza, Frutta Bowls, Mulligan's Bar and Grill, Woody's Roadside Tavern, Doughboys, El Burro, Shop N Bag, Farmingdale Liquors and Five Guys.

In Freehold, Cafe 360 and Romeo’s Pizza. In Manalapan, Carlo's Pizza and Dusal's Italian Restaurant. In Colts Neck, Huddy's Inn. In Belmar: Playa Bowls, Doughboys and Coney Waffle. In Avon-by-the-Sea, Macaroon Shop and Bing’s Deli. In Asbury Park, Ale House, Lola’s and Silverball Museum.

I donated cookies to the Howell Police Department (89 boxes); Howell Police EMS (20); Howell EMS (30); Jersey Shore University Hospital (30); Centra State Hospital (87); Brandywine Living at Howell (100); Monmouth County Sheriff's Office (29); and a World War II veteran (15).

The support of these businesses and individuals is greatly appreciated by myself and the frontline workers. Their support for “giving back” made it possible to put Girl Scout cookies in the hands of these amazing people. In addition, I was able to come up with other creative ways to sell cookies while following the social distancing and state guidelines that were put in place, and I was still able to achieve my goal of selling 5,028 boxes this year.

Editor's note: Marisa has been a top 10 cookie seller in Monmouth and Ocean counties for the past six years. In 2018, she was the top seller and set a record by selling 5,021 boxes.