Cookies for Soldiers is a non profit with an interesting backstory. Owner Emily Graves started the foundation when she was just six years old.
It began with a simple question.
Emily was nearing the end of her first cookie selling season as a Girl Scout. Her mother, a philanthropist herself, surveyed stacks of Thin Mints and Samoas and asked Emily the question that has changed so many lives: “What good can be done with these cookies?”
It did not take the young girl long to come up with an idea. She wanted to send Girl Scout cookies to the soldiers overseas and to veterans in hospice care. Why?
“To give them a taste of home,” explained Graves. “A lot of times they think they are forgotten, so even if they can’t keep the cookies [because of illness or dietary restriction], they know they are remembered.”
Emily used her own savings to buy the first boxes of Cookies for Soldiers.
“To me it was a big deal,” said her mother, Rhonda. “Because it wasn’t something I would have done at that age.”
Together they wrote a letter to an official in Veteran’s Affairs that could help them determine the next step. A National Guard deployment would be leaving soon from La Porte, so it was decided that these would be the first donees. Emily raised money and cookies until she had 200 boxes to send with the troops.
Since then, Emily’s good deed has grown into an annual drive. Cookies for Soliders has achieved a 501c3 status, so that they could raise funds all year round, instead of just in the two month window that Girl Scouts sell cookies. They acquired another volunteer, the father of one of the soldiers they have sent boxes to. Other Girl Scouts sell for them, asking consumers to purchase a box for a soldier when they buy one for themselves.
They also began giving cookies to veterans.
One of the most precious experiences the family has been a part of is when they have given out the cookies themselves. A Veteran program called Honor Flights takes Vets to visit memorials in Washington D.C. When they return home, Emily and her mother are waiting at the landing strip to deliver cookies. It is an unexpected bonus to an already emotional flight.
Emily appreciates getting thank you cards back. She likes knowing who she is helping, and seeing that what she is doing really is making a difference.
That is part of what keeps Emily interested in Girl Scouts. She is a 9th grader now at New Prairie High School but has yet to outgrow that passion for helping people.
“There’s always someone you haven’t reached out to,” she says. “I want to reach everyone I can because it’s important to them.”
Through Girl Scouts, she has done a lot of community projects with her friends. She completed a Silver Award Report that brought Emily and her project partner to Washington Park Zoo for a day of advocation. The two girls wanted people to have a better understanding of which animals are endangered, why, and how they can help.
“It’s really important right now because more animals are dying than usual, due to climate change and deforestation. Humans are animals. We’re no better than them, and it’s still their Earth,” she said.
Emily also volunteers through Gleener Life Insurance Society, an organization that her mother works for.
She even turned the packing up of the Girl Scout Cookies into a way to give back. The people who have helped her raise money for the boxes are invited to a packing party, where she has provided a variety of entertainment that has included picnics and a balloon artist.
“La Porte is quiet, yet busy,” said Emily. “We’re kinda cut off from everyone.”
Yet the teenage entrepreneur is making connections all over the world. This year brings her total amount of boxes donated to over 20,000.
“She’s learning to speak in public and realizing that even though she is fearful, she needs to go a little out of her comfort zone,” said Rhonda, of Emily. “It may cause a little anxiety at first but in the long run it helps you conquer fears. Getting involved and doing things boosts your confidence. You realize that there is nothing that can stop you.”