The cookie was broken and unsellable ? perfect for an impromtu sampling.
Gloria and Helen Josephson chewed and nodded in agreement. It was a delicious batch.
The Springfield Plains Elementary students and their parents, Kate and Ross, have been baking cookies since Jan. 14 to raise money for American Red Cross Haiti Relief.
An $8 donation is good for a dozen peanut butter, chocolate chip, or triple chocolate cookies; $15, two dozen. So far, the family raised $1,150, a bit more than Helen’s goal of $1,000.
The idea came while the family was sitting at the dinner table on Jan. 13, discussing the earthquake disaster in Haiti the day prior. The girls knew something happened but didn’t know all the details.
‘The more we started talking about it, the more concerned Gloria and Helen were,? said Kate. ‘We explained to them things in Haiti were bad to begin with, now they were even worse.?
Helen asked what they could do.
‘I thought it was great,? Kate commented when the girls wanted to help out. ‘We talked about what would God want us to do, what should we be doing with our time so we can help, how we can help.?
They began brainstorming. They thought about selling items they had, but a garage sale was out of the question because of the cold weather. Then, they took a different approach.
Ross said they could bake and the girls quickly agreed, thinking of all the different kinds of cookies they could make.
‘It was hard to decide,? said Helen.
The girls narrowed their list down to the different flavors. Gloria pushed for sprinkles but they chose to have all three go without.
The girls started listing their ideas for the list, brownies, cookies and other baked goods.
The family made order forms and fliers to give to family, friends, neighbors and Springfield Plains teachers and classmates.
‘It was a neat, community effort,? said Ross.
‘It’s fun to help God and the people in Haiti,? Gloria said.
They paid $600 for the ingredients, with all proceeds from the cookies donated to the Red Cross.
‘We knew going in the ingredients would come out of our pocket,? said Kate. ‘But if we want to continue it we have to be careful about what we do to ourselves.?
They are debating if they will stop making cookies or continue, explaining if they had a sponsor, they would be able to continue.