New York City's first homeless shelter-based Girl Scouts troop had an ambitious goal for their first ever cookie sale: Troop 6000, which represents thousands of girls in the New York City homeless shelter system, wanted to sell 6,000 boxes.
Well, the girls far exceeded their goal, selling 32,569 boxes and raising $15,400 in financial donations, according to Girl Scout officials. “Thank you to everybody who supported our first sale,” Sanaa, a 10-year-old from Troop 6000, said in a press release provided to Refinery29. “I’m so excited that I got a chance to sell cookies, just like any other Girl Scout.”
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Many of the girls in Troop 6000 still live in shelters, while others have since moved on to permanent housing. "I wasn't expecting [becoming homeless] to ever happen to me," Karina, one of the troop's founding members, told Refinery29 on the first day of the cookie sale. "You hear about it, you see people that live on the streets, but you wouldn't think an actual homeless person would look like me or all the other beautiful girls around here."
Thousands of children are in New York City's shelter system, the average homeless student missing half of the school year.
“We are so grateful to everyone who stood in line to purchase cookies, to our partner Kellogg’s and Little Brownie Bakers, and many others who made the first Troop 6000 cookie sale a resounding success and gave these girls the opportunity to be cookie business bosses," said Girl Scouts of Greater New York CEO Meridith Maskara.
Proceeds from Troop 6000's cookie sale go to help fund activities for the scouts and to support girls living in shelters throughout New York City.
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