11-Year-Old Booted From Girl Scout Troop After Exposing Organization's Cookie Dumping
After becoming the center of national controversy over her treatment by the Girl Scouts while trying to raise cookie donations to US troops, 11-year-old Emma V. discovered even more disturbing evidence of the organization's business practices. A story investigated and written by David Goldstein of CBS News in Los Angeles reporting the dumping of 13,200 boxes of cookies into a landfill last May.
Read the investigative story here: http://cbsloc.al/12QeaXz
Emma decided to start a petition to stop the Girl Scout Cookie dumping. The petition, published on Causes.com (http://www.causes.com/girlscoutspetition), has gained over 3,000 signatures in just 6 days.
"My friends and I worked really hard to raise donations to send cookies to the troops. I think if there are extra cookies, they should send these to the troops or donate them to homeless shelters," said Emma, the originator of the petition.
Just 49 hours after starting a petition to stop the practice, Emma's mother received a call and then a follow up email from Linda Dominquez, VP of Membership & Community Development at Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio, stating that Emma was "not to communicate with her troop mates" until the Counsel had a meeting to decide what they were going to do and where they were going to move her.
"I can't say for certain that the reason for them asking her to cease contact is because of the petition, but the timing is pretty strange. The controversy has been building for weeks since the original incident where the Girl Scouts publicly scolded Emma via Twitter for using PayPal to accept donations for the ICARE program. I think the organization and the local leaders are angry that we took the story public and this petition pushed things over the edge," said Emma's mother Kimberly Reynolds.
According to the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio blog (http://gscookiesblog.com/icare/), the ICARE program "supports military service people, local food banks, women’s shelters, Ronald McDonald houses, camps and several other community organizations. The tagline of the official promotional poster for the ICARE program is "If you can't eat them, treat them."
Yet the Girl Scout organization was found to be dumping more than 13,000 boxes of "over ordered" cookies.
San Gorgonio is the same council that dumped the cookies into a landfill.
"I don't want to be in the middle of all of this. I just want to do what I think is right and what I thought I was doing by joining the Girl Scouts and working so hard at selling cookies and raising donations. I don't think dumping cookies is right and that's why I started this petition," said Emma.
To digitally sign the petition, visit: http://www.causes.com/girlscoutspetition.
Links to national news coverage about Emma's original 'cookie controversy' are available at http://www.treats2troops.org/media-links.
About the Anti-Cookie Dumping Petition: Tens of thousands of Girl Scout cookies have been thrown away at the end of season every year. The Girl Scouts Organization has stated that there is no national protocol in existence to deal with the remainder of unsold cookies every may when they can no longer be purchased. A petition started by 11-year-old Emma V. urges the organization to create a protocol that deals with all left over girl scout cookies that includes the donation of leftover cookies to troops who are serving abroad and local homeless shelters and food banks.
About Treats 2 Troops: Treat 2 Troops (http://www.Treats2Troops.org) offers a way for the people around the world to donate care packages to US military personnel serving overseas.
Media Contact:
Kimberly Reynolds
760-567-6676
http://www.causes.com/girlscoutspetition
Press Release courtesy of Online PR Media: http://bit.ly/XUCRxf
