Church's sales fund ministries
GROVE CITY — While mixers wind through dough and volunteers bustle about the kitchen, the scent of chocolate chip cookies is a sign that everyone is working at East Main Presbyterian Church.
Once a month, members of the church's Shalom Cookie Company ministry gather to bake cookies for students at nearby Grove City College.
Each summer, college parents receive a letter about the ministry. The parents can subscribe to the service, which delivers homemade cookies, sometimes with a personal message.
Robert and Betty Dorris of Oreland send their son, Joseph, a special surprise cookie for his birthday each December.
"I think he was glad for the thought of us sending a cookie out to him," Robert Dorris said. "He was surprised, and once he got it, he enjoyed it and shared it with his friends. It was finals week, too, so it was especially nice for him to get it."
The orders are processed in September and organized into each month's deliveries. Cookies can be delivered during finals week, and special orders can be taken for birthdays and Valentine's Day along with other holidays. In addition to regular chocolate chip cookies, parents can order a special 12-by-12 cookie decorated with a message like one this month, which read "Happy Valentine's Day! You are our little Valentine."
Carla McCoy helped start the ministry in 1990 and said the project is close to her heart because God spoke to her and wanted her to do it.
The Shalom Cookie Company began after a few members of the church took part in a mission trip to Ohio with a different church from Annapolis. When the East Main participants returned, they shared how the money for the trip was raised by the other church: through cookie bakes.
Since that time, women and men line the counters in the church's large kitchen each month, each with a duty like mixing eggs or flour and brown sugar.Stacks of chocolate chips, along with bags and bags of flour, are ready to be mixed.A single cookie is framed on the wall above the windows, marking the Shalom Cookie Company's "half a millionth" cookie, which was baked in 1997. In 2005, the ministry had baked a million cookies.The classic recipe for the chocolate chip cookies also hangs on the wall as a reminder for any volunteers who need to take a look while baking.The cookies cost $3 a dozen, and all proceeds fund East Main Presbyterian's summer mission trips, whether it be to Canada, Mexico or for Habitat for Humanity projects. More than 600 dozen cookies are baked in a single day, and about 600 Grove City College parents subscribe to the ministry. As of last year, the ministry raised more than $239,794 for the mission trips. Last year, the group raised about $12,000.LouAnn Bestwick has been involved with coordinating the ministry since the beginning, and she said she knew she wanted to do something for her church."When I heard about it I was ready," Bestwick said. "The Lord prepared me to jump in with two feet."As the cookies are scooped onto large trays and baked to perfection, they are then wheeled out to 13 large tables in the church gym, where they cool off before packaging.
Bestwick said in addition to helping both students and parents of Grove City College while funding mission trips, cookie bakes provide a great opportunity of fellowship among volunteers."The crew in the morning is mostly made up of retired people, and it's just incredible," she said.Rose Phillips is retired and is one of about 40 volunteers at the cookie bakes every month."It's something I can do to contribute to the ongoing life of the church," Phillips said. "It's in line with my interests as well and a part of the process that supports the mission trips."Bestwick said she loves to hear the stories from the cookie deliveries."The best time to deliver is to the freshmen girls' dormitory in October," she said. "The excitement spreads down the hall as the cookies are delivered one by one."Martha Rice of Grove City volunteers at each of the eight cookie bakes throughout the year and said she manages the bagging process."We put them in paper sacks for each dormitory, and so we probably have about 50 to 60 bags of cookies," Rice said, noting that some former GCC students now are among the volunteers.Rice said the women's choir and the men's soccer team at the college pick up the cookies from the church and deliver them to each dorm room.She said the ministry has the best volunteers, and faith always delivers the cookies to completion."God's faithfulness to this ministry has been overwhelming to me," Bestwick said. "When we run into roadblocks, they are cleared, and that stands out to me continually."
