A little taste of home on the way to soldiers in Iraq

Thanks to the efforts of some Hayden senior citizens, things are about to get a little sweeter for 2,000 men and women in Iraq. In about a month, Marines and Army soldiers will get a little taste of home when they receive 515 pounds of cookies.

Members of the Hayden Senior GEMS spent days up to their elbows in cookie dough and bubble wrap, baking and packaging cookies to send to the troops. The Hayden Lake Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9831 and Pappy Boyington Detachment 966 Marine Corps League of Coeur d’Alene arranged for distribution of the cookies earlier this month.

It all started with a Senior GEMS cookbook.

“The ladies gave me all these recipes from World War II. We put them in a special section in the cookbook.” said Barbara Tennery, of the Senior GEMS. “It seemed to me that there was no reason why we couldn’t get our seniors to bake cookies.”

So the Senior GEMS put out a call to the community for cookie bakers and at first got no reaction. Peg Murphy, a member of the Senior GEMS, spotted a sign-up sheet at Hayden City Hall that had no names on it. “She said ‘Oh, that can’t be,’ and took the list down to her church (St. Pius X Catholic Church),” Tennery said.

And then the cookies started rolling in, stored in Tennery’s freezer until the pick-up date.

Murphy, a snowbird who leaves North Idaho during the winter, spent a couple of months whipping up support for the cookie brigade before she left. “It probably would have faltered if not for her,” Tennery said.

When Tennery contacted the VFW to find out where to send the cookies, the organization volunteered to take over distribution. Through the VFW and the Marine Corps League, the cookies will be sent to the 1st Marine Division in Iraq and to some Army units, said William “Dusty” Rhoads, District 1 commander for VFW Post 9831. Chaplains and first sergeants will receive and distribute the cookies to the troops. The cookies also will be sent to two Army posts direct.

The cookies were sent to New York where the military took over shipment. Rhoads estimated it would take four to five weeks for the troops to get the cookies. About 2,000 soldiers will receive cookies.

When Tennery found out how many would be getting cookies, she organized a cookie-baking session in her home. “When I heard 2,000 soldiers, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get baking!’ ” Tennery said.

Five Senior GEMS members gathered at Tennery’s house to bake and package cookies. “We thought we could do it in a day,” said member Shirley Ellis. “It turned into a three-day project.”

The five members included Ellis, who packaged, Tennery who baked, Tennery’s 95-year-old mother-in-law Rachel Tennery, who packaged, 79-year-old Bille Schroepfer, who baked and packaged and Mary Ann Taibi who baked and picked up cookies from others who were donating.

“People kept calling and bringing cookies … there was a sign in the yard that this was the cookie drop-off. Three or four times Barbara opened the door and there’d be cookies sitting there,” Ellis said. “It was a wonderful thing that happened.”

“The cookies keep coming and coming and coming,” Ellis said. “We quit trying to count. We had too much to do,” Ellis said.

“When I walked in the house (to pick up the cookies), the lady was still pulling cookies out of the oven and an 80-year-old lady was wrapping and packaging,” Rhoads said.

Rhoads estimated they shipped 515 pounds of cookies. Tennery estimated the Senior GEMS and other volunteers baked about 3,000 cookies.

She’s hoping that the Senior GEMS can lead another effort to send even more cookies in the spring.

Rhoads said cookies boost morale. “It feels like the folks at home care.”

In addition to cookies, the troops also will receive letters written by students at Hayden Elementary School.