Seniors help bakery send cookies to troops abroad
East Dundee bakery owners Diane and Roger Ahrens learned this year that help was theirs for the asking.
They own Piece-A-Cake Bakery and run "Operation Sweettooth" for U.S soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. For years, they have been sending cookies for free to men an women in the military. Not only do the former U.S. Marine couple provide the ingredients, but they pay their employees to bake, and package them.
The families who request the cookies pay the $20 cost to mail them.
This year however, the rising cost of sugar, flour and other parts of the treats caught up with them and they wondered if they could continue without asking the families for a donation.
A group of Elgin and Dundee Township senior citizens heard of their worries and stepped in to help. Every Monday, 20 or so seniors meet at the Dundee Township Park District's Senior Center. Some pick up the cookies from the North River Street bakery and take them to the center, where others are waiting.
"They have taken a huge load off me," Diane said "It takes a lot of time to wrap the cookies individually and box them up."
For the seniors, some who live in the Willow Lakes Estates neighborhood in Elgin, it takes about two hours, about half the time it took the handful of bakery employees.
"We wrap them individually and we have a machine that seals them," said Gerry Salvesen, an Elgin resident. "Sometimes we put other things in there like toothbrushes and soccer balls.
"We have included candy in the packages so the troops can pass it out to the kids in the area where they are. One of the units brought along a soccer ball and they said the kids ran from the candy and started kicking the ball around."
Each box contains four or five dozen sugar and chocolate chip cookies so the person receiving them can share with others in their fighting units.
"This is something we wanted to be involved with," Salvesen said. "We heard the (Ahrenses) were sending the cookies and asked what we could do to help out."
"Their help cuts down on our labor cost so much," Diane said. "It's something we're excited about."
The couple started "Operation Sweettooth" in 2004. Since then, the Ahrens have sent 2.75 tons of cookies to the American troops, she said. They started because they know the importance of receiving packages from home.
And they have vowed to continue as long as troops are stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's important they know we haven't forgotten about them," she said.
For details on Operation Sweettooth, call the bakery at (847) 836-6703.