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A Thompson Falls woman wanted to do something to bring some light into the world. That light came in the form of 720 boxes of Girl Scout cookies shipped to Montanans deployed with the National Guard.

Averie Boon gathered donations online for two weeks earlier this year. The $3,400 raised purchased 720 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, which Boon packaged for shipment this past Sunday with the help of her daughter Ainsley, her mother Jodie Bittinger, friend Colleen Knutson and Colleen's mother Karen.

Boon's family has a personal connection to the troops currently in Kuwait as her brother Tyler Eqosque is deployed. Boon said that her brother is excited to receive the cookie shipment. "It's important to let them know we are thinking about them. Tyler was impressed that I was able to do this," Boon stated. Also in the packages are cards from community members, pictures and cards from kids at Thompson Falls Elementary, as well as a second-grade class in Polson for which one of Boon's friends is the teacher. Boon added that there are lots of people in the community affected by this deployment. As the owner of Shear Attitude Salon, she learned that one of her clients has a son and a son-in-law deployed as well.

Annie Wooden

Cards and pictures from community members and school children were included in the packages for local troops.

Boon noted that her goal was to be able to send each person on the deployment a box of cookies. She learned that there were at least 1,000 soldiers on deployment, but about 450 of them were from Montana. Knutson is the leader for a Girl Scout troop in Thompson Falls and also had more than 10 additional boxes donated through the troop's sales. Boon said that as an added bonus, some of the money from the sale of the donated boxes goes to the local Girl Scout troop, so she was happy to be able to support them as well. Knutson said they have eight Girl Scouts in the troop, and they sold about 3,500 boxes of cookies this year. Knutson added that they had to do a lot of fundraising in order to start a troop. She started the local troop just this year.

Donations for the cookies for troops came in from all over Montana as Boon, her friends and family shared the project on social media. "People were so generous," she said.

As the group packaged the cookies for shipment on Sunday at Boon's house in Thompson Falls, they were already discussing the possibilities for future efforts to send cookies to troops.