Everywhere we go, people want to know...who we are...and where we come from...
This is a post about Emma Vermaak. The 11-year old Girl Scout from San Gorgonio California who started a petition to have the council's unsold girl scout cookies sent to our troops overseas. But it's a little more complicated than that. A local news station caught hold of Emma's story and did an investigative report on the cookie-dumping practices. That 13,200 boxes of cookies were destroyed and thrown into landfills every year. It was then that Emma was kicked out of her troop and told she couldn't contact her friends until council decided "where to put her." Seems like that in trying to avoid bad PR regarding their dumping practices, the San Gorgonio Girl Scout Council has only screwed themselves further by punishing this brilliant resourceful girl who should get the goddamn Gold Award instead of being publicly humiliated and ostracized.
Here's news footage .
And here's her story: From her website treats2troops , from her petition, and from a news reporter who singles out the jerk who kicked her out.
This makes me so angry. I have not been so angry about anything in a long time. I LOVED the Girl Scouts. Scouting was so important to me through every facet of my life: moving, having trouble making friends in school, crappy home stuff, coming out...everything. And to see that this council treated this girl the way they did...it makes me ashamed to have even been associated with Girl Scouts. Let alone to have been a member for nearly 15 years. Yeah, the food wasting is sick. But lots of places do it. I'm not saying that makes it any better or permissible...just that it's nothing new on that level. And that in lots of places that have fresh food such as produce or meat...well it's kind of justified. But to destroy perfectly good un-expired, wrapped packages of Girl Scout cookies instead of donating them to troops or food pantries AND penalizing a girl who only wanted to help....it's sick.
I've spread the word to my family and friends, tweeted about it, and emailed both Ellen Degeneres and Bill O'Rielly. Here's hoping she gets some justice.
Here's news footage .
And here's her story: From her website treats2troops , from her petition, and from a news reporter who singles out the jerk who kicked her out.
This makes me so angry. I have not been so angry about anything in a long time. I LOVED the Girl Scouts. Scouting was so important to me through every facet of my life: moving, having trouble making friends in school, crappy home stuff, coming out...everything. And to see that this council treated this girl the way they did...it makes me ashamed to have even been associated with Girl Scouts. Let alone to have been a member for nearly 15 years. Yeah, the food wasting is sick. But lots of places do it. I'm not saying that makes it any better or permissible...just that it's nothing new on that level. And that in lots of places that have fresh food such as produce or meat...well it's kind of justified. But to destroy perfectly good un-expired, wrapped packages of Girl Scout cookies instead of donating them to troops or food pantries AND penalizing a girl who only wanted to help....it's sick.
I've spread the word to my family and friends, tweeted about it, and emailed both Ellen Degeneres and Bill O'Rielly. Here's hoping she gets some justice.