Cancer-Surviving Girl Scout Sells Record 32,484 Boxes of Cookies in One Season

An 8-year-old California Girl Scout set a record for the organization by selling 32,484 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies in a single season.

Lilly Bumpus, 8, a Brownie who overcame a form of cancer known as Ewing’s Sarcoma when she was a toddler, sold cookies from a booth set up outside her San Bernardino home and collected orders online, many of which were donation orders for patients at various children’s hospitals in the area.

“A lot of people approached us saying we must have gotten big businesses or sponsors to buy from us, or big donations,” the girl’s mother, Trish Bauer, told the San Jose Mercury News. “The biggest order placed was 100 boxes. Lilly reached 32,000 boxes out of everyone seeing value in buying one box, two boxes, four boxes, and everybody working together to try to be a small piece of a really big puzzle.

“That, to me, is magical.”

Bumpus’ Girl Scout troop, which is composed largely of cancer survivors, girls currently undergoing cancer treatment and children who have lost a loved one to the illness, gathered outside her home March 22 to unveil her sales total: 32,484 boxes.

Bauer said the girl was still short of the previous record, 26,086, just one week before the season ended.

“She sold her freaking heart out till the last day of Girl Scout cookie season,” Bauer said. “We boothed 11 hours straight outside our house and sold 500 boxes in one day. It’s Lilly being Lilly. She does not like somebody telling her something is not possible.”