Rockville Camera donates Girl Scout Cookies to Mount Sinai South Nassau

Most years, the demand for Girl Scout Cookies is high. In the middle of a pandemic, however, purchasing the cookies became more difficult, and was not a priority for most people.

“The cookie season was cut short,” Mary Scarpelli, troop leader of Covert Junior Troop 878, said, “so, there was a surplus of Girl Scout Cookies.”

Thanks to Garrett Smetana, owner of Rockville Camera, hundreds of cookies have made it in to the hands of those on the front lines: he recently donated 220 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies to health care workers at Mount Sinai South Nassau.

Smetana said he learned that the Girl Scouts had a surplus of Girl Scout Cookies because troops were unable to sell them, as social distancing measures prevented them from going door-to-door and setting up tables in front of grocery stores and other public places. He went online and bought some boxes for himself, and noticed a tab on the website asking for donations.

“But then I thought, maybe I can do more,” he said. “I wanted to something local, and to know where the donations would actually end up.”

He contacted Scarpelli, who he had met while giving the troop a lesson to earn a photography badge in his shop last year. She reached out to cookie managers through Facebook and helped coordinate with those who had extra boxes to sell. Troops who contributed in addition to Covert Junior Troop 878 include Watson Brownie Troop 849, Covert Brownie Troop 851, St. Agnes Daisy Troop 816, Watson Junior Troop 860 and Freeport Junior Troop 2453.

Smetana also reached out to a contact on the board of Mount Sinai South Nassau to coordinate the cookie delivery. Within a couple of days, everything fell into place.

“It was such a generous thing to do,” Scarpelli said. “Cookies cheer everyone up.”

During the pandemic, Smetana has had to furlough his three employees and is spending his time tending to areas of the shop he had not been able to get to.

“I’m just gearing up and getting ready for when I can get reopen,” he said.

His business has been affected, but he said providing a donation to those on the front lines is the least he can do.

“I wanted to do something nice for everyone out there working hard, and am also supporting the scouts,” he said. “And who doesn’t like Girl Scout cookies? They’re a great treat.”