Girl Sells 32K Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies: 'Nothing Is Impossible'

Cancer survivor Lilly Bumpus, 8, also collected 5.2K donated boxes; some will go to other survivors
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 1, 2021 10:40 AM CDT
Cancer Survivor, 8, Smashes Girl Scout Cookie Record
Workers unload trucks containing thousands of cases of Girl Scout Cookies at the Chapel Hill Mall in Akron, Ohio, on March 1, 2010.   (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal via AP, File)

The 2020 season for Girl Scout Cookie sales was cut short, but the 2021 season was, in a word, "insane." That's according to Trish Bauer, whose 8-year-old daughter just smashed the national record for most boxes sold in a single season, per the San Jose Mercury News. Lilly Bumpus of San Bernardino, Calif., sold 32,484 boxes, some 6,000 more than the previous record of 26,086. They went out to locations in all 50 states, plus Canada, the UK, Spain, France, Italy, and Egypt. But 5,200 boxes stayed put—Lilly had encouraged buyers to donate boxes as well. Now, 1,000 each will go to homeless people, deployed troops, and three children's hospitals. There's a good reason for that: Lilly is a cancer survivor herself.

Lilly, who also helps others through the Team Lilly Foundation, was born with Ewing's sarcoma but has been free of the disease since she was a toddler. "Lilly has always been blessed with the community of supporters she's had with her," says Bauer. "But for the first time, the world saw she had her own voice, her own mission, her own site that is bigger than cancer." Bauer says she warned her daughter that it could be difficult to sell cookies this year. But "she told me, 'Nothing is impossible.'" Lilly covered a lot of ground, as the largest order was for 100 boxes. Still, she was stunned by the final number. "It just meant so much to me to see that huge number," she tells KABC. "I thought, 'Wow, I never knew I could do that.'" (More uplifting news stories.)

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