South Whidbey Girl Scouts collected more than 2,000 boxes of cookies for military members serving overseas and for the Good Cheer Food Bank through the programs “Operation Cookie Drop” and “Gift of Caring,” during this year’s cookie sale.

The dedicated Girl Scouts sold the famous boxes at sites all around the South End from Friday, Feb. 24 through Sunday, March 13. The result, said site-sale cookie manager Donna Ertel Riley, was sweet success for the 135 Girl Scouts and their parents of Service Unit 151.

The girls, from Daisies to Cadettes, sold more than 17,000 boxes of cookies, almost 3,300 more than the past year, and raised more than $11,500 to support their troop’s operating expenses.

Riley extended a special thanks to all the businesses that allowed the girls to sell cookies at locations across the South End, including Bayview Corner, Chase Bank, Clinton Chevron, Clinton FoodMart, Community Thrift, Freeland Shell, Frontier Building Supply, the Goose Community Grocer, Ken’s Korner Red Apple, Les Schwab Tire Center, Naomi’s Valero, the Paint Escape, ProBuild, Sebo’s Do It Center, Short Stop Texaco, Skagit Farmer’s Supply, the Star Store in Langley and in Bayview, Washington State Ferries and the Whidbey Island Bank branches in Clinton, Freeland and Langley.

“Without their support, none of this would have been possible,” Riley said.