November 28, 2001
Cookies prove a sweet sale
Old Mission Women's Club fund-raiser this Saturday at fire hall
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Forget roses, everything's coming up cookies on Old Mission Peninsula this Saturday.
Eggnog cookies, lemon cream cookies, chocolate meringue cookies, Neapolitan cookies, sugar cookies - cookies of all sizes, shapes and colors.
At the landmark Old Mission Women's Club Annual Cookie Sale, hundreds of pounds of cookies disappear faster than the speed of light.
With eager buyers lining up before the sun rises, even before the sellers arrive, it is no wonder that the group's biggest fund-raiser of the year is here to stay. With six years of baking under their collective belts, they are easily the ranking cookie experts.
"I don't want to brag, but I think we have one of the best cookie sales in the area," said Susan Cogswell, a member of the Old Mission Women's Club for nine years. "They are gorgeous cookies and they taste good - we have people standing in line by 7 a.m."
Those hopeful purchasers will get a share of the more than 400 pounds of cookies the club sells at the Number Two Peninsula Township Fire on Center Road, beginning at 8 a.m. But if you wait too late in the morning to arrive, the cookies just might be gone.
The Old Mission Women's Club raised $2,000 last year with their cookie sale and members hope that even more will come in this year. They donate all the proceeds to area non-profit groups, ranging from the Women's Resource Center to the Peninsula Township Fire Department.
The club also ensures one additional donation for the volunteer firefighters, who share their space with the club one Saturday a year.
"A platter of cookies always remains for the firemen," said Carolyn Burns, immediate past president of the Old Mission Women's Club and a veteran cookie contributor.
Some members turn their baking into a social event. Cogswell invited Linda Somerville over to bake this year and the two were churning out dozens of tasty confections Tuesday morning.
"I just moved here a few years ago and it was a good way to make friends," said Somerville, a member of the club for two years.
Traditional recipes abound at the cookie sale, with bakers harvesting secrets from their mothers' and grandmothers' cookbooks.
"I am Swedish and I am making some pepparkakor, a Swedish ginger cookie," said Burns, who also plans to make dozens of tiny gingerbread men cookies.
"It is nice to dig out some of the traditional recipes from my mother's cookies," agreed Cogswell.
Other bakers like Somerville are boldly going for new untried recipes from a cookie cookbook.
"It is fun to make so many cookies because I love baking," Somerville said. "Another good thing is you're not eating them all yourself."
One direct benefit of the sale for club members is the chance to sample recipes and then add them to their own repertoire.
"We share recipes with other members because once you've tasted someone else's really good cookies, you want them," Burns said. "This is a source of new recipes."
The Sixth Annual Old Mission Women's Club Cookie Sale will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday, December 1, at the Number Two Peninsula Township Fire on Center Road. Cookies often sell out by 10 or 11 a.m., so buyers should come early.