Lind ‘ladies’ make monthly mission to Spokane to bake cookies for young patients

Debbie Rausch watches the clock. Four of them, actually.

There’s one portable timer for each of the four ovens in the kitchen at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Spokane. One morning each month, those ovens produce about 1,500 cookies for the young patients who live at the residence while undergoing medical treatment.

“That’s what makes this so much fun: to see the kids. Sometimes, they’ll even help us,” said Rausch, 57.

She’s a Lind Cookie Lady.

Since the Ronald McDonald House opened, the Lind Cookie Ladies have traveled to Spokane to bake cookies on the second Tuesday of each month. In nearly 30 years, they’ve baked about a half million cookies.

“It’s really sort of a hallmark of this house,” said Colleen Fox, director of development and communications for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Spokane. “They’re our longest-standing volunteer group. It’s absolutely amazing. They’re so sweet.”

Phyllis Wahl, who turns 76 on Monday, started the monthly cookie-making mission after touring the newly built Ronald McDonald House in 1987. She was inspired by her sister – “my best friend” – who stayed in hotels in the mid-1970s while her teenage son was fighting cancer.

“I thought to myself, ‘How wonderful this would’ve been for them,’ ” said Wahl, whose nephew had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. “They gave him two years, and that’s what happened.”

Today, Wahl is the only original Lind Cookie Lady left and the last remaining member who actually lives in Lind, Washington. “The rest,” she said, “have ties to Lind. There’s connection between everybody.”

Fewer than 600 people live in the tiny town, which sits deep in the wheatland of Adams County, 17.5 miles southwest of Ritzville and 76.5 miles from Spokane. It’s a close-knit community of farmers who, Wahl said, believe in giving back.

“We have a great group, very organized and dedicated,” she said. “There were a couple of times in wintertime we missed because of weather. But there is usually someone here.”

Spokane’s Ronald McDonald House has 22 rooms. Lodging is free for patients who are 18 and younger and live at least 40 miles or 40 minutes from Spokane. About half of the families served have premature babies in a nearby NICU. Thirty percent are children fighting cancer. The remaining 20 percent “can be anything,” Fox said – car accidents, surgery, respiratory illness.

Patients and their families – rooms sleep up to five – stay anywhere from a few nights to a year. The average stay, Fox said, is 44 days.

Along with lodging, the house provides baking basics: flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, oats. The Lind bakers bring eggs, M&Ms, chocolate chips, Rice Krispies, butter, margarine.

“When we all chip in, it isn’t too much for any of us,” Wahl said. “I always do the Rice Krispies treats. We always have chocolate chip. We don’t do anything with nuts because of allergies. Sometimes, somebody will make brownies. It just depends on what people decide to do.”

Double chocolate is a favorite. Lemon snowballs are the most asked-for recipe.

“You need a snickerdoodle. That’s what you’re smelling,” said Rausch, who carpools with her mom. Betty Kulm, 89, made the trek from between Lind and Warden before moving to Spokane Valley nearly a year ago.

“I said when I retired I was going to do this. I retired July 31, and I was there the second Tuesday of August,” said Rausch, who began volunteering in 2009. Her mom started 20 years earlier.

Wahl has known their family since childhood. She worked on Kulm’s farm for five summers as a teenager.

In all, eight women make up the Lind Cookie Ladies. A couple husbands help, too.

Jim Wells, 65, of Spokane, was the only one Tuesday. He does dishes and scoops dough into baking sheets. “There’s a hierarchy,” he said. “And I’m at the bottom.”

The cookies are quick-cooking; they only require about 10 minutes in the oven. That’s a good thing when you’re making more than 100 dozen.

“I’m going to continue as long as I can physically and mentally. It’s in my heart and my being to help the families,” said Wahl’s sister, Barb Jensen, 74, of Warden. She started volunteering in 1990.

Both married farmers. Wahl’s does dryland wheat; Jensen’s, onions. They leave their homes by 7 or 7:15 in order to arrive in Spokane by 8:30 a.m.

Mid morning Tuesday, Aryia, a leukemia patient who’s not quite 3, came into the kitchen with her mom, Gina Harrison, 42, of Sandpoint. They’d been staying here for a couple of weeks and could smell the sweetness wafting from the room.“This is the first time we’ve seen the cookies happen,” Harrison said. “Cookies are a favorite.”

But, “Chemo changes the way cookies taste. She loses her appetite.”

Still, Aryia executed a jaunty “happy dance” when she received a sugar cookie with sprinkles.

“We can give comfort and something extra for them while they’re dealing with all of their issues,” Wahl said. “They can always have fresh cookies.”

Batches are cooled, then frozen and taken out throughout the month. They sit on trays on a counter top in the kitchen. Patients and families can help themselves.

“They all come in,” Wahl said. “They love the smell. We have a lot of people say it makes it smell like home.”