More than 1,700 people recently boarded the USS Midway Museum for Girl Scouts San Diego’s 17th annual Operation Thin Mint sendoff. Special guests included Point Loma Girl Scout cadette Jessica Andrews of Troop 4103. The seventh-grader was one of 20 high-achieving cookie entrepreneurs who sold 2,017 or more boxes in 2017. Andrews, who reached 2,036 boxes sold, and the other top cookie sellers, arrived and departed by helicopter. During the program, the girls took the stage to reveal that this year, generous San Diegans donated 141,570 Operation Thin Mint boxes of Girl Scout cookies for U.S. troops. 
The sendoff event is the culmination of Girl Scouts San Diego’s Operation Thin Mint community service project, a local program that sends “a taste of home and a note to show we care” to deployed U.S. military troops, and to veterans. Since the Operation Thin Mint program’s inception in 2002, cookie customers have purchased more than 2.8 million boxes of all varieties of Girl Scout Cookies and countless handwritten notes of support to the military. Recipients include U.S. Navy, Marine, Army, Air Force and National Guard troops aboard ships, and military personnel stationed in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the South Pacific. 
All cookie proceeds stay in San Diego to fund local Girl Scout adventures like camp, traveling, science, career exploration and girls’ community projects. 
As the world’s largest girl-led enterprise, the Girl Scout Cookie Program teaches girls like Andrews about money management, goal setting, decision making, people skills and business ethics.
To learn more about Girl Scouts opportunities in Point Loma and the surrounding areas for girls in grades K-12 and adult volunteers, visit www.sdgirlscouts.org, or contact Christa Sherman, [email protected], or 619-610-0706.