Thousands of citizen-soldiers serving with the Hawai'i Army National Guard in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan will receive a sweet reminder of home next month when 3,000 boxes of donated Girl Scout cookies arrive in the mail.

The treats will be sent as part of Operation Girl Scout Cookies, the statewide Operation Uplift that includes letters and drawings from Girl Scouts around the state.

The cookies just arrived from the bakery in Kentucky, said Tammy Yamanoha, the Girl Scouts' director of communications. The Hawai'i Army National Guard will have volunteers to help the girls pack and address the 375 boxes Sunday and take them to the post office near Ho-nolulu International Airport for mailing later in the week.

Joining the Girl Scouts and Guard troops Sunday will be Theresa Inouye, the mother of Sgt. Deyson Cariaga, who was killed in Iraqi on July 8. Inouye donated $1,000 toward the cost of mailing the cookies, Yamanoha said.

These boxes of cookies are ones that people buy during the annual cookie drive and offer for donation, Yamanoha said.

Aime'e Fisbee, a Mililani Mauka resident, also will be there packing up boxes of cookies. The 17-year-old Senior Girl Scout said the cookie donation program is great because it gives her an opportunity to give back to the men and women fighting to preserve her freedom.

"I have some friends who have parents over there," Fisbee said. "They're fighting for our country and we can give something back to them."

This is the third year that Girl Scouts have shipped out cookies to troops stationed overseas, Yamanoha said.

"I think it would be pretty cool to get Girl Scout cookies while being deployed," said Hawai'i Army National Guard Maj. Chuck Anthony. "The Girl Scouts came up with this idea and asked us for help on where to send the cookies."

While Alexandra Makk has been selling Girl Scout cookies for years, this is the first time she will participate in an operation like this.

The 12-year-old Star of the Sea student wants the soldiers to know that they haven't been forgotten.

"I think when they get the cookies they'll be really touched that we sent them from Hawai'i," Makk said. "I want the soldiers to know that we care about them and are thinking about them over there."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.