An 8-Year-Old's Cookie Idea Landed on an Aircraft Carrier

In the spring of 2002, an 8-year-old Girl Scout in Sun Valley, Idaho had a simple idea for her troop's cookies: send them to the troops.

The Idea Behind the Order

Tallulah Belle Willis was a member of Girl Scout Troop 231 in Sun Valley, Idaho. With her cousins Katie and Hayley Rogers, she came up with the idea of sending Girl Scout cookies to American service members deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom, and asked her father, actor Bruce Willis, to help.

Willis later told Good Housekeeping how it happened: "One day, she just said to me, 'We should send some Girl Scout cookies over to the troops in Afghanistan.' The whole idea just stopped me in my tracks. I just thought it was a brilliant idea. So we looked into it."

He bought 12,000 boxes. Willis's publicist, Paul Bloch, confirmed the story at the time: "The story is absolutely true. His daughter came up with the idea, along with her two cousins, and the cookies were sent."

Getting Them There

Willis worked with the Department of Defense to arrange delivery to personnel deployed in the Middle East. Reports at the time also said that, because the cookies are only baked for part of the year, filling an order that size meant reopening a bakery.

Delivered to the Fleet

More than 8,000 pounds of cookies were delivered to sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, then deployed to the North Arabian Sea, according to a U.S. Navy news story from May 29, 2002.

Before the boxes were handed out, the Kennedy's commanding officer, Capt. Ronald H. Henderson Jr., spoke to the crew: "We give up a lot of comforts and most of our privacy. But, one of the most important things we give up is some of the rhythms of American life. One of the American traditions we miss most is Girl Scouts coming around and selling their cookies."

The first box went to Aerographer's Mate 3rd Class Tehirah Barkum of the ship's weather office, a former Girl Scout. "I love Girl Scout cookies and used to be a scout myself," she said. "I was glad to be the first to get a box!"

A Thank-You With a Condition

The ship's Command Master Chief, Kevin C. Davis, said many sailors could not believe Willis and his family had made sure the cookies reached them. One sailor asked him to pass on a thank-you, with a condition: if Bruce could get his old band out to the ship for a show, he would thank him personally.

It all started with one question from an 8-year-old who thought her dad might be able to help.