ATLANTA -- The tornado that moved through downtown Atlanta left a group of local Girl Scouts holding the bag for tens of thousands of Girl Scout cookies.

About 36,000 boxes of Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Samoas were stacked at the Georgia World Congress Center when the storm hit last weekend.

The Scouts were planning to sell their famous cookies at the Atlanta Home Show. It was going to be the first time the Scouts tried such a big sale in one place.

"We were going to sell Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then the tornado hit," said Scout leader Valarie Culbreath. "Thank God none of our cookies were destroyed."

The cookies were spared, but with the Home Show canceled because of damage to the convention center the Scouts find themselves scrambling to sell their cookie collection.

The moved the cookies to the Atlanta Volunteer Service Center in DeKalb County and hope to sell them during a weeklong cookie drive there.