Cookie drive delivers holiday cheer to Airmen

Cookies for the Troops

Spouses from the Peterson Spouses Club donate their time Dec. 4 by bagging cookies to be given to single servicemembers living in the base dormitories. The drive, now in its eighth year, gives Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines a taste of home while they're away from families during the holiday season. (Courtesy photo)

Published Dec. 11, 2007
By Ms. Corey Dahl
21st Space Wing Public Affairs

PETERSON AFB, Colo. -- Arriving home from work Dec. 5, Airman First Class Mequanint Kassa was surprised to find a package at his door that was a lot better than anything the postal service could deliver.

Instead of an ordinary brown parcel, Airman Kassa, an information manager with the 21s Operations Group, received a hand-decorated bag full of a dozen cookies, some cocoa and a few candies.

"I was really surprised to get the cookies," he said. "They were sitting outside my door in this little bag with drawings on it. It was really nice."

Airman Kassa was one of dozens of Airmen living in the dorms who received the sweet treat, courtesy of the Peterson Spouses Club. For the last eight years, the club has sponsored a holiday cookie drive for dorm residents, hoping to give single Airmen a little taste of home away from home.

"It's just a simple way to say thank you to the people here that are single and probably away from home for the first time, missing mom's cookies and cocoa," said Jeannine Morton Brown, who organized the drive for the club. "It shows them that they have an extended military family here that cares about them."

Roughly 300 dozen cookies and other treats were donated for the drive by base employees and their family members as well as by area retirees and AAFES vendors. Local school children decorated brown lunch sacks for the cookies, and about 24 volunteers from the Peterson Spouses Club and around the base spent two days stuffing the bags.

Volunteer Laura Hyten, a member of the Peterson Spouses Club, said she felt good about dedicating her time to such a nice cause. With a daughter in college herself, Mrs. Hyten said she knows it can be tough to be away from home during the holidays.

"They're away from their families, and this just shows them that someone cares about them enough to bake some cookies," she said. "It's kind of special. And, really, what young person wouldn't want cookies?"