Cookie Factory feeds midshipmen, raises funds for missions
Oct. 30, 2006
NOTE: A UMTV report and photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By John Gordon*
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (UMNS) - This is not your ordinary church bake sale.
Members of Calvary United Methodist Church here are known for doing things in a big - and delectable - way.
"Wouldn't be anything without chocolate chips," said Jean Graf, mixing the dough at Calvary's Cookie Factory in the church kitchen.
25 years of cookies
For the past 25 years, the church's youth group and adult volunteers have gathered one Saturday a month to bake chocolate-chip cookies - satisfying the hunger pangs of midshipmen at the nearby U.S. Naval Academy and raising money for mission trips.
"A few years ago, we did 22,000 cookies in one day," said Gordon Duvall, manning the oven to make sure the cookies come out a perfect light golden brown. "That took us most of the day, and that was the most we've had."
Members of parents' groups from across the country, and other friends of the midshipmen, order the cookies by the dozen for delivery to the Naval Academy. Cookies are sent as birthday and holiday gifts or for sugary energy boosts during exams.
Church members drop off the treats at the Naval Academy within hours of baking them.
"I have a lot of midshipmen friends, and they're always excited to get them," said church member Rachel Heisman, 16. "I deliver most days, so they're always like, 'Ooh, cookies, do we have any?' It's fun."
Caring about others
The Cookie Factory started small, with nine youth from the church dipping dough by hand with ice-cream scoops.
Since then, as the orders have poured in, the operation has grown faster and more sophisticated - using a commercial mixer and a machine that drops pre-measured dollops of dough onto baking sheets.
"Today, we'll make probably around 8,000 or so," said Lon Slepicka, an adult volunteer. "And I haven't eaten them all. That's the good thing."
Members of the youth group don't seem to mind giving up part of their Saturdays to bake cookies with their friends.
"It's fun. And I'm working towards going on my mission trip," said Arden Robbins, 12. "I see more people who need help than me. I'm caring more about others than being selfish and being 'I want this' or 'I want that.'"
Funds for mission trips
This year, the church's senior youth group made a long trek to New Orleans to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, while junior-high students went to Pennsylvania.
"It contributes around 90 percent of the funds for our mission trips that we do over the summer," said Kevin Burroughs, Calvary's youth minister. "It's important to the church. That's how people know the church, and (it) gets people involved."
The cookies cost $3.50 per dozen, including delivery, and can be ordered from the church's Web site <http://www.calumc.org/templates/eas03br/details.asp?id=25564&PID=112 339
.
Joan Moored, an adult volunteer in charge of taking Internet orders, said her biggest fear is a delivery mistake that could leave a midshipman with an empty stomach.
"I have nightmares that I've forgotten a mid, or that I've got them in the wrong company. And then we get the phone calls saying that 'my mid didn't get his cookies,'" said Moored. "Maybe his roommate ate the cookies or one of the company-mates got them before he did. You've got to be fast, I believe."
The bakers and their helpers are free to sample broken cookies - quality control, of sorts. Graf, the chief mixer, prefers to eat the dough.
Graf has been helping at the Cookie Factory since the 1980s, when her children were members of the youth group.
"My children graduated from high school and college, but then I continued, I liked it so much," she said.
Heisman described this year's mission trip to New Orleans as "very eye-opening." The Calvary youth worked on rebuilding the home of a disabled woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis.
"She was a very open woman, sharing her life story, and very open to letting us come in to her house and just supporting us," Heisman said. "She said it was more for us than just for her."
*Gordon is a freelance producer and writer based in Marshall, Texas.
News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5458 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org