American Legion Post 105 and Sons of the American Legion (SAL) Squadron 105 made life a little sweeter by making a combined $1,000 purchase of Girl Scout Cookies, which will be sent to servicemen and women deployed abroad and to veterans at New Jersey’s VA hospitals.
The hope is that each bite of a Somoa or a Trefoil cookie reminds the troops and vets of how much the American Legion 105 Family appreciates and values what they do and have done.
As they do every year, Girl Scouts around the country sell cookies as their biggest fundraiser. This is the case for Girl Scout Troops 20122 and 20462, both of Nutley, who have sold cookies for the past few years at Post 105. Troop 20122 makes its home at Post 105, meeting monthly at the hall.
Since 2018, the Post 105 family has annually voted on buying and donating cookies to send to those in uniform who can’t be home during cookie season. For the 2023 cookie sale, Post and Squadron 105 went bigger than ever.
“That’s what our money is there for – this is a great project to give to,” Squadron 105 Commander Steve Sangemino said at the meeting where the vote happened. “This [donation] should increase every year – just like everything else we’re doing.”
SAL 105 voted to top last year’s donation by increasing it to $250 of cookies sent via “Operation Jersey Cares” to troops overseas and $250 to the Second annual “Cookies for Vets” program to veterans in VA hospitals. Post 105’s Legionnaires then matched both of those donations.
Through “Operation Jersey Cares,” skids of cookies from around the state are loaded onto planes and sent to troops around the world. In 2021, over 80,000 boxes were sent to the military.
The “Cookies for Vets” program is in its second year, run by the Children and Youth Commission at the state-level SAL Detachment of NJ. SAL 105 Adjutant Rusty Myers, who is also the state Children and Youth Commission chairman, manages the donation of cookies in January which are then donated to NJ’s two VA campuses at Lyons and East Orange.
Last year, Girl Scouts from both troops, as well as a young SAL from the Belleville squadron, delivered the cookies to both VA locations in April.
“This program is great – it’s what we should be doing,” Essex County Adjutant Henry Deltosto said. “It hits two of the reasons why the American Legion is here – helping our veterans and supporting our kids.”
Girl Scout Junior Grace Myers of Troop 20122 and Cadette Abigail Myers of Troop 20462 accepted the donation on Jan. 25, while also making the rounds, selling their last-minute cookies to everyone else at the Post.
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.