Alexis Davis recently bit into a warm orange sugar cookie and tasted admiration.
“It means a lot to me that people are still thinking about us,” said Davis, who works as an emergency medical technician with Lancaster EMS. The sugar cookies, along with snickerdoodles and chocolate oat morsels, came courtesy of the newly created Lancaster chapter of Cookies for Caregivers. Some 30 volunteers bake and deliver cookies weekly to area frontline workers. Three EMS stations shared 12 dozen cookies on a recent Wednesday.
That’s why Lancaster resident Jodi Drummond stepped in. “Kindness,” she explained, “is as simple as a cookie.”
Drummond started the local baking group after reading about a new national charity that began in Huntingdon County.
Origin story
Longtime Huntingdon friends and educators Scott McKenzie and Jeremy Uhrich challenged each other to a chocolate chip cookie bake-off last April, after the pandemic closed schools. Uhrich, a middle school teacher and girls volleyball coach, opened the contest to his players. Student Rachel Kyle accepted, and her cookies got the nod from Huntingdon Borough Mayor David Wessels, the lone judge. Then Uhrich, McKenzie and Kyle decided to donate about three dozen leftovers to nearby police dispatchers. Those dispatchers, Uhrich recalled, expressed heartfelt thanks.
“We realized we had something,” McKenzie said, and their charity to recognize frontline workers during the pandemic began. A Facebook group quickly recruited 50 volunteers who took turns baking each week.
Uhrich recalled the early days of the pandemic before widespread mask use, when grocery employees and frontline workers seemed afraid to go to work.
“It was scary for many people,” Uhrich said.
Receiving cookies seemed to make the days easier to handle. Workers knew people were thinking about them.
“Our goal from the beginning was to spread kindness and appreciation,” Uhrich said. Also, recipients seem to appreciate the group’s hygienic standards: Volunteers bake wearing masks and disposable gloves.
Media attention soon followed, with stories featured in The Washington Post, People magazine and other publications. TV appearances on CNN, NBC’s “Today” and “The Rachael Ray Show” followed, as did inquiries from like-minded volunteers across the country.
These days, Cookies for Caregivers in Huntingdon includes some 200 members and counts about 60 chapters in the United States and Canada.
Local chapter
Drummond started the Lancaster group in December. “We don't thank people as much as we should,” she said. Her daughter Abbey, 20, created the group’s Facebook page, and volunteers soon joined.
Local bakers volunteer weekly through Facebook or text messages to make four or five dozen cookies and bring them to Drummond's house in disposable boxes. Drummond and Abbey individually wrap the cookies before delivery.
“The response has been great,” Drummond said.
C. Robert May, Lancaster EMS executive director, explained why.
“Who wouldn’t want cookies? It’s a wonderful distraction for first responders to come back from a 911 call and see cookies,” he said, adding that while one cookie may not seem like much, “It’s a lot to our employees.”
Davis, the EMT, seemed to agree. “There are days we don’t stop for lunch,” she said. “We don’t have a chance to sit down.”
A sweet show of thanks
That rationale prompted Kristy Whitman Geidel, of Lancaster city, to get out her butter and sugar and start baking on her days off.
“People think about doctors and nurses when they think about frontline workers,” said Whitman Geidel, a gynecologist, whose husband also is a physician. “It’s important to recognize others.”
Whitman Geidel says baking relaxes her and helps get daughters Abby, 10, and Emily, 8, involved in a project.
Another baker, Ilse Medlock, also of Lancaster city, calls creating treats for workers “a sweet way of telling them, ‘We see what you’re doing, and we appreciate what you’re doing.’ ”
Medlock, who counts health care workers as friends, said she “jumped at the chance” to make chocolate walnut cookies for the charity. “People appreciate being remembered.”
Shirley Heisey, a nurse who supervises Lancaster General Hospital’s community COVID-19 testing, called receiving cookies “a wonderful surprise” because her temporary staff doesn’t work in a hospital. “It’s a pat on the back for them,” Heisey said, noting that employees “are in the front lines but are not taking care of COVID patients every day.” Some of the 15 staff members stood outside all day in bitter cold to test drive-thru patients. Munching on 14 dozen warm cookies brought smiles to workers’ faces, Heisey recalled. “What a great thing for caregivers to do.”
Water Street Mission, a Lancaster homeless shelter, also expressed appreciation for the sugary treats.
“We are grateful for the blessing,” said Jon Maki, volunteer manager for residential ministry. Maki shared 26 dozen cookies with 150 staff members in the organization’s administrative office, health clinic, food pantry, maintenance shop and outreach offices. “Our staff could certainly use a pick-me-up.”
As COVID-19 vaccines slowly arrive, some wonder if Cookies for Caregivers will stop baking. Probably not, group organizers say. “We want this to go on as long as it can,” Uhrich said. “Why does this have to stop?”
“We have been having a lot of fun with this,” Drummond said. “People need to love one another and take care of each other.”
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January 22, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Lancaster chapter of Cookies for Caregivers delivers sweet treats to frontline workers - Fly Magazine
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