WASHINGTON — A 9-year-old girl from Silver Spring stopped by two Montgomery County police stations on Sunday to deliver Girl Scout cookies and thank-you letters to officers — and she’s not stopping there.
Elizabeth Barry’s mother, Katherine, says she was moved by officer Noah Leotta’s death, as well as the personal struggle a family friend, who is also a police officer, has gone through.
“He lost his 8-year-old daughter to liver cancer a few years ago, and Elizabeth has a very close bond with him,” Katherine told WTOP. “Every chance she gets, she wants to make him smile.”
Elizabeth says she dropped off the boxes of cookies to the officers because she wanted to make them smile, too.
“I wanted to set a good example to other people and I donated [the cookies] because I wanted [Leotta’s] fellow officers to smile again,” Elizabeth said.
Mission accomplished.
“There [were] so many smiles and it was a surprise for them,” Elizabeth said.
“They were laughing and they were saying ‘hurray’ and they were just really happy that they could get cookies. They were very hungry for them when they saw them … that was really fun, to see them so happy.”
Along with the donated boxes of cookies were thank-you notes she wrote for the officers.
In her letter to officers, she wrote (in part):
… I sold more than 400 boxes this year! I was very happy about that. I sold so many because I told people that I wanted to bring you, police officers, some cookies. I am also going to bring cookies to hurt soldiers at the VA hospital in DC. Lots of people donated cookies. I thought that some cookies might make you smile and know that people are sending you love. Thank you for being brave and keeping us safe.
Elizabeth says she has a lot of respect for what police officers do.
“Sometimes it’s hard to be brave when you know that you might get hurt or you might die … and it’s kind of weird how they don’t really show emotion when they know that they might get hurt or might die in a situation,” she said.
In recent years, part of Elizabeth’s cookie sales pitch has been: if you don’t want to buy cookies for yourself, you can buy them and donate them. Of those donated, she set 20 cases (each containing 12 boxes of cookies) aside for police officers and injured soldiers.
Katherine said each police station received five cases. The remaining 10 cases will go to soldiers recovering at the VA hospital in D.C., which she plans on visiting in the next couple of weeks.
WTOP’s Michelle Basch contributed to this report.
