(Members of Troop 2092 outside Rainier House, with some of what they donated)
Over the weekend, we showed you West Seattle Girl Scouts getting ready for their annual cookie sales, and some WSB’ers joked about the calories. Local Girl Scout mom Tracie Luthi e-mailed WSB to make sure everyone knows cookies are about a lot more than indulgence and calories – the sales are the main fundraiser for local troops, and they do some amazing things with the money, including this one that Tracie tells us about:

West Seattle Girl Scout Troop 2092 has been working on their Bronze Star award, which is the highest award a Junior troop can earn. These Fifth and Sixth graders chose furnishing an apartment at the new Rainier House as their project. The Rainier House is housing through the Downtown Emergency Service Center, which helps vulnerable mentally ill homeless people transition to apartment living.

The apartments are opening this week on Rainier Ave. I believe there is an opening ceremony (today) for the building as a whole, and on Tuesday 50 new residents move in. The troop set up the apartment (Sunday) afternoon with items they purchased with their proceeds from last year’s cookie sales. Cookies do good work!

You can read more about Rainier House in this Times article published today; as reported in our cookie-arrival story Saturday, cookie sales start this Friday (if you want to buy some and have trouble finding them, this webpage can help). Plus, you’ll hear a bit more about what local Girl Scouts are up to, after we cover a “World Thinking Day” event tomorrow night during which the Scouts will be taking action to help improve the health of people half a world away.