Meet Impact 100 Jersey Coast Member Devin Carrick
By Janet Mazur Cavano
What happens to all those Girl Scout cookies when a pandemic strikes in the middle of sales season?
Forced to abandon community booths and direct sales during the governor’s stay-at-home order, the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore created an innovative solution: They started a relief fund and donated cookies to essential workers.
Impact 100 Jersey Coast member Devin Carrick, the director of sales and recruitment for the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, played a critical role in the initiative. “It’s nice to give back to the people who are giving so tirelessly,” Carrick explained. “One first responder said getting a box of Girl Scout cookies is like getting a box of love!”
Carrick is no stranger to tirelessly giving back. On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, she was driving around the county picking up bags and boxes of donated goods from people’s porches for a local food drive.
In addition to her role on Impact’s Membership team, Carrick also serves as president of the Monmouth County Young Democrats. Of the Girl Scout cookies, she points out that not only will the funds subsidize projects and programs for scouts in Monmouth and Ocean County, but the initiative also models a valuable lesson.
“It gives the girls a new opportunity to be resilient and to learn new ways of marketing,” she said. ”It also offers them a new perspective. Plus, we just wanted to keep the cookies moving!”
When people make an online donation, volunteers safely deliver the cookies to the essential workers. To date, an astonishing 50,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies have gone to local hospital personnel, first responders, and other essential workers. They donated another 10,000 boxes to Fulfill, the food bank of Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Visit gsfun.org/cookierelief to learn more.