Shop
 Explore 

8-year-old cancer survivor breaks Girl Scout cookie record selling over 32,000 boxes

8-year-old cancer survivor breaks Girl Scout cookie record selling over 32,000 boxes

via Lilly Bumpus / Facebook

As one can imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the 2020 and 2021 Girl Scout Cookie sales drives. So this year, the organization created a socially-distanced porch drop-off option in collaboration with GrubHub.

However, even though it's been tough for the Girl Scouts to get out there and do in-person sales, one member in San Bernardino, California managed to break a sales record.

San Bernardino's Lilly Bumpus, 8, sold more than 32,000 boxes of cookies over the past three months, beating the previous record of 26,000. The international organization states it doesn't keep official records, but local councils are free to do so.

A spokesperson for the Girl Scouts of America told CNN that it applauds "Lilly's entrepreneurial efforts, awesome sales goal, and donations!"

8-year-old cancer survivor breaks record for sold Girl Scout Cookieswww.youtube.com

The achievement is even more impressive given Lilly's long history of health issues. She was born with Ewing sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Doctors told her family that she'd probably never make it through the treatment, let alone the disease.

She underwent 14 rounds of adult-strength chemotherapy and had a portion of her chest wall removed all before her first birthday.

She recently celebrated her seventh year of being cancer-free.

"Because of the opening in her chest wall that leaves her heart exposed, she isn't allowed to do any type of physical activities or sports," her mother, Trish Bauer told Today.

"Lilly tried cheer, dance, and swim lessons and all of it put her in the hospital," she added. "So last resort, me being desperate to find anything for my daughter to do with other kids to simply feel included and to be a kid, I signed her up for Girl Scouts."

It looks like the Girl Scouts have been a good fit.

Of the 32,000 boxes Lilly sold, 5,200 will be donated to "fellow childhood cancer warriors in the hospitals," the homeless, and to deployed troops. Lilly and her troop will donate $20,000 worth of the cookie proceeds to two charitable missions they'll announce at a later date.

Lilly sold some cookies from a stand she put on her front lawn, but also made them available online. Over the years, the family has created a community online through her Facebook page and the Team Lilly Foundation.

Over the years, Lilly has used it to support children with cancer through surprise birthday parties and cancer-free celebrations. She's also raised money for funerals for children who've lost the battle with the disease.

Lilly leveraged the support of this community by posting a letter on Facebook. "My letter explains that when someone donates a $5 box through my cookie sales that it will go to a kid fighting cancer feeling really alone or to someone that is homeless," she said.

Then, the sales started rolling in.

Lilly's story is a wonderful example of finding where you can help and giving it your all. Her health made it hard for her to participate in a lot of activities, but she found what worked for her, gave it her all, and it made a big difference in a lot of people's lives.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

Folks are admitting that Boomers weren’t totally wrong. Here are 19 things they got right.

OK, Boomer, you're right about this one.

via Patrick Lannigan/Flickr

The gaze of the approving Boomer.

Over the past few years, Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) have been getting a lot of grief from the generations that came after them, Gen X (1965 to 1980), Millenials (1981 to 1996), and now, Gen Z (1997 to 2012). Their grievances include environmental destruction, wealth hoarding, political polarization, and being judgemental when they don’t understand how hard it is for younger people to make it in America these days.

Every Baby Boomer is different, so it's wrong to paint them all with a broad brush. But it’s undeniable that each generation shares common values, and some are bound to come into conflict.

However, life in 2023 isn’t without its annoyances. Many that came about after the technological revolution put a phone in everyone’s hands and brought a whole new host of problems. Add the younger generations' hands-on approach to child rearing and penchant for outrage, and a lot of moden life has become insufferanble.

Keep ReadingShow less

Little boy steals the show at his sister's end-of-year dance school concert

This kid was born to dance.

@kleinkwagga1/TikTok

Klein Kwagga understood the assignment at his sister's concert.

Some kids are too shy to ever want to get on a stage, some will spend most of a performance staring awkwardly at their shoes, and some kids love the opportunity to show off what they've practiced in front of an audience.

And then there are the kids were simply born for the spotlight. You know them when you see them.

When Dirkco Jansen van Nieuwenhuizen hopped on stage with all of the other brothers and sisters of the dance students at René’s Art of Dance in South Africa, no one expected a viral sensation. According to Capetown Etc, it was the school's year-end concert, and siblings were invited to come up and dance to Bernice West’s Lyfie—a popular song in Afrikaans. And Dirkco, who goes by Klein Kwagga, took the assignment and ran with it.

Keep ReadingShow less

People share the most practical ways to support new parents after giving birth

Sometimes the best gift is practicality.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

People share the most practical ways to support new parents

There's a lot of preparation that goes into having a child well before they're even born. First there are the physical changes your body makes to clear up some space for a tiny human roughly the size of a watermelon. Then there's preparing the nursery, buying lots of extremely small clothes, diapers and an expected understanding that while sleep may be your friend, you won't be getting any of it for about a year.

Lots of people give plenty of advice to help you cope in the early days but after the baby arrives, the focus shifts to solely the baby. It's obviously not a deliberate shift. Babies are just more shiny and new that the parents. But not everyone forgets about the parents once baby makes their grand entrance–some go out of their way to make sure the parents feel supported.

Upworthy asked its audience, "what was the best non-baby related gift you received as a new parent," and the answers were a masterclass on how to care for new parents.

Keep ReadingShow less

postpartum gifts

Formerly enslaved man's response to his 'master' wanting him back is a literary masterpiece

"I would rather stay here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters."

A photo of Jordan Anderson.

In 1825, at the approximate age of 8, Jordan Anderson (sometimes spelled "Jordon") was sold into slavery and would live as a servant of the Anderson family for 39 years. In 1864, the Union Army camped out on the Anderson plantation and he and his wife, Amanda, were liberated. The couple eventually made it safely to Dayton, Ohio, where, in July 1865, Jordan received a letter from his former owner, Colonel P.H. Anderson. The letter kindly asked Jordan to return to work on the plantation because it had fallen into disarray during the war.

On Aug. 7, 1865, Jordan dictated his response through his new boss, Valentine Winters, and it was published in the Cincinnati Commercial. The letter, entitled "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master," was not only hilarious, but it showed compassion, defiance, and dignity. That year, the letter would be republished in theNew York Daily Tribune and Lydia Marie Child's "The Freedman's Book."

The letter mentions a "Miss Mary" (Col. Anderson's Wife), "Martha" (Col. Anderson's daughter), Henry (most likely Col. Anderson's son), and George Carter (a local carpenter).

Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Keep ReadingShow less