Between Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, there are 11 active Girl Scout troops. The potential - and the girls - exist to form at least two more troops immediately, but while the Girl Scouts aren't short on cookies, they are short on troop leaders.

"It is hard to keep the positions filled between the deployments and PCS moves," said Nancy Hatch, regional director for the Girl Scouts of Western Washington. "So we're always on the lookout for volunteers."

Operation Cookie Drop is the major way local Girl Scouts give back to the soldiers. In fact, most of us have probably witnessed it when leaving the commissary or Safeway and been stopped by the girls hawking their cookies. During these site sales there's an opportunity to purchase a box that will be given to soldiers. Most often the boxes are delivered in bulk at a later time; however, if you want to pick out Thin Mints specifically and write a message on that box, you can.

In this area, most of the cookie drop stockpile is given to the USO office on McChord, so the cookies can be handed out to deploying service members.

And then there is Hatch's favorite cookie act - one that is personal to Fort Lewis.

"Somehow, no matter who has left, this project gets done every year," Hatch commented. "The (Girl Scout) troops on base get together on Christmas Eve and take homemade platters of cookies to every group of people stuck working that day. It's amazing."

The girls will be out in full force this month as the annual cookie sale commences on Jan. 8. Specific times and dates are given for the troops on post to go door-to-door. Subsequently, site sales and Operation Cookie Drop will start by the end of next month.

To volunteer or to find out more about signing your daughter up for Girl Scouts, visit www.girlscoutsww.org.