A sweet taste of home traveled thousands of miles this Girl Scout Cookie season after the Exchange delivered more than 210,000 boxes to military communities in Europe and the Pacific.
For more than 25 years, the Exchange has shipped cookies to military communities in Europe and the Pacific on behalf of the USA Girl Scouts Overseas—the international arm of the USA Girl Scouts.
“This is really our only fundraiser for the year,” said Kristin Kerekgyarto, Camp Foster community coordinator. “Because of the Exchange, we’re able to get the cookies here.”
The continued collaboration also allows Scouts to fully participate in the program, including those in remote locations such as Kwajalein and Saipan. Scouts rely on earnings from cookie sales to fund badges and campouts.
“If we didn’t have the Exchange, we’d pretty much have no way to raise funds,” said Cashay Anderson, Kadena Air Base cookie manager. “The cookies are my main source of income for everything. It’s a big deal the Exchange gives us the opportunity to have the cookies shipped here.”
Planning started shortly after the 2025 selling season. Order requests were received in October, then placed with the Scouts’ bakery in Louisville, Kentucky.
Once orders were ready, the Exchange’s Logistics team arranged to have the cookies shipped overseas to the Germersheim Distribution Center at Kaiserslautern Military Community Center in Germany and the Humphreys Distribution Center at USAG Humphreys in South Korea.
Kelli Sims, Exchange exports router, said the Logistics team makes the cookies a priority, working hand in hand with distribution centers and carrier to ensure a timely delivery.
“The cookies are something we prioritize because it is a true taste of home,” Sims said. “Shipping them each year—it really embodies the organization’s motto, ‘We Go Where You Go.’”
The Germersheim and Humphreys distribution centers received orders in mid-December, well ahead of the selling season.
Connie Samaniego, inventory management specialist III in Planning, Allocation and Replenishment, said as a former Scout, it’s a full circle moment for her to lead the buying and ordering process for the cookies.
“I’ve been a Girl Scout myself, so I know the excitement of the selling season,” Samaniego said. “My father was in the military and I was doing Girl Scouts on base. Now I get to help deliver those cookies to bases all around the world.”
Shipping cookies also means military families can spend time together. Scouts also rely on sales to host family-friendly activities.
“Unless it’s cut and dry that the girls will be the only ones enjoying a certain activity, we invite the parents to join so families can spend time together,” Anderson said. “We invite family to a lot of things we do. We are supportive of each other.”
For 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s Maj. Doraine Pierre-Louis, at Panzer Kaserne in Germany, the collaboration exemplifies how the Exchange takes care of military families overseas.
“Having Girl Scout Cookies builds morale,” Pierre-Louis said. “It is another example that shows what the Exchange does for military communities and our families abroad.”
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