We are always impressed by how our Girl Scouts use their cookie money, but this cookie season we were blown away by the support for one of our local Brownies: McKenzie Harris.
On New Year’s Day, seven-year-old McKenzie and her family were in head-on car accident. The collision left her paralyzed from the neck down. McKenzie and her family were facing a long road to recovery, along with thousands of dollars of medical bills and a big list of needs (including a special wheelchair and retrofitting their entire house) before they could bring McKenzie home.
McKenzie and her mom Sara are both part of Girl Scouts—McKenzie as a Brownie, and Sara as a troop leader—and their troop wanted to help. Cookie season gave them the perfect idea: donate their cookie money. Thanks to the generous support of KMPS and DJs Tommy and Joe, her troop got the word out and local news stations started picking up the story. Soon there were stories on KING 5, KOMO News and Q13 Fox about McKenzie and her troop’s efforts to help.
On the last weekend of the cookie season, with help from KMPS, McKenzie’s troop sold over 2,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies at Walmart in Spanway. The girls gave 100% of the raised funds from the entire cookie sale to help McKenzie. In addition, the Harris family took home $5,000 in community donations.
(We should also note that McKenzie didn’t let being in the hospital stop her from participating in cookie season: she sold over 400 boxes from her hospital bed!)
And the Girl Scout support wasn’t limited to just one troop: two more groups in western Washington stepped up to help.
When Troop 40455 heard about McKenzie on King 5 News, they decided to donate the rest of their cookie sale proceeds to benefit their Girl Scout sister. “What a terrific motivation to get out there and sell more cookies!” said Troop 40455′s leader Margie Oblander. “It was a win-win for everyone.”
Troop 44217 also voted to donate cookie proceeds and set a goal of selling 100 boxes during the last weekend. They ended up selling over 180 boxes! As Troop 44217’s leader Jennifer McGrath put it: “The girls’ spirit of giving, paired with a caring and supportive community, can truly make a difference!”
For more information about McKenzie’s progress, visit her YouCaring Page.
P.S. We just heard that Troop 40970 from Snohomish is planning to donate $1,000 of their cookie proceeds to McKenzie! “Our girls sold their tails off that last weekend to help their sister Girl Scout,” writes Mary, one of the troop moms.
Have you heard of any other Girl Scouts who are pitching in? Let us know by emailing web@girlscoutsww.org.
