Council Bluffs Girl Scout troop for kids without homes sells nearly 20,000 boxes of cookies

COUNCIL BLUFFS - A Girl Scout troop for girls whose families are homeless in Council Bluffs managed to sell more than 20,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year.

Troop 64224 made sales in all 50 states - a remarkable feat for a troop of about six girls confronting unstable living situations in the middle of a pandemic.

After reading about New York City's Girl Scout Troop 6000 - launched in 2016 to serve young girls in housing-insecure situations - Jaymes Sime was inspired to offer the program at the emergency shelter he runs in Council Bluffs.

Sime, executive director of MICAH House, reached out to Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa, which was on board with replicating the plan.

Together, the two established Troop 64224 in February 2018 - a year in which more than 2,700 Iowans experienced homelessness, with 91 percent of them seeking shelter services, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The troop starting selling cookies in their first month of existence.

Nicole, who lives in MICAH House with her two children, said the Girl Scouts programs at the shelter brought back her young daughter's confidence. She spoke on the condition that she only be identified by her first name because she is a survivor of domestic violence.

Her daughter, Nicole said, was a little bummed out about not continuing her dance classes once they got to MICAH House. But she returned to being her lively self once she became involved with Troop 64224 in January.

The biweekly meetings and cookie sales also have given Nicole a chance to spend one-on-one time with her youngest child.

'Girl Scouts is great for her,” Nicole said. 'I think it's something that would've been good for me had I had it.”

At least six other troops throughout the country serve girls facing some type of hardship that would normally be a barrier to them participating in the program, according to Girl Scouts of America.

A nontraditional troop can encounter challenges, such as fluctuating membership and memberships that span months instead of years as families move on to permanent housing, according to Beth Shelton, chief executive of Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa.

Once the girls leave, they are always considered to be part of the troop, and some go on join other troops, she said. For others, obstacles such as transportation to meeting sites can make it difficult for girls to continue being active.

About 117 girls have been part of Troop 64224 since it started in 2018, Shelton said.

'It unites girls and gives them a sense of pride,” Shelton said. 'Most people really love the cookie program, and the girls get to be at the heart of something. They get to be heroes.”

The Girl Scouts program is one of the few programs for children at MICAH House that was able to continue operating under coronavirus restrictions.

The program took a brief pause when the pandemic hit, but its small size allowed it to continue operating as long as participants and volunteers remain masked and physically distanced, Sime said.

Nicole's daughter's magnetic personality prompted a leader of a local nonprofit to message Sime about buying more cookies from her after being blown away with her tenacity, Sime said.

'However we can give hope and address trauma, that's what we're going to do,” he said. 'Girl Scouts selling cookies, it does that - it helps reduce the trauma of experiencing homelessness.”