September 16th, 2010
by Muffi Grinnell/Carol GuestSponsor: The Kovals
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It was a record day at Cookie Cafe. 521 students attended and ate over 230 dozen cookies! There were 6 cookies left at the end of the day. I expect to have more complete details when Mom Guest has a chance to fill me in.
Anita & Joe Koval drove all the way from Houston Texas (for the second time!) with a back seat full of cookies! I talked to Anita on Monday and she was still baking! She provided 210 dozen cookies that she baked herself - what an incredible labor of love.
A new and very exciting addition to Cookie Cafe is the flag that will fly at Land Hall when Cookie Cafe is open. Isn't it beautiful! Casey (2013) and her mom Lorene Roth, currently living in Okinawa, designed and donated this flag so the Mids will know when to head to Land Hall for some home-baked nirvana.
The best quote from a very serious Mid:
"This is a joyous thing!"
Denise Kummer and her daughter came for the first time and said:
WHAT A GREAT TIME!!!
Just got in from the cafe. It was a little rough coming home. We no sooner went thru the gates and the rain came down and the winds picked up! It was coming down so hard I pulled over onto a side road. While waiting for the rain to subside, a tree came down about 5 feet in front of my car-just uprooted!! My daughter and I just looked at each other.
But, wow - the Cafe was terrific. The cookies from Texas from Anita and her husband were delicious. The looks on the kids' faces when they came in were priceless! You could tell those that have been there before. But the Plebes were almost speechless. My daughter and I were so glad we could go.
Another cute one from a Plebe's mom:
Good morning:
Last night we received a Skype message from our plebe son...his first words were..."We had the Cookie Cafe today and it was awesome!!!!!"
Never mind, Hi mom and dad how are you????
Thank you for all of your efforts and time. I know it cannot be easy. That said, how can I help? I live in Massachusetts, about a 3-hour drive away. I would love to help out at the Cafe, but would definitely want to send cookies. My mother-in-law, neighbors and various relatives are standing by with their mixing bowls, waiting for the official ...."Ladies, start your baking."
(HEY PARENTS - I THINK WE'RE GOING TO NEED MORE COOKIES EVERY WEEK...A LOT MORE COOKIES!)
Here's Mom Guest's Story for the first Cookie Cafe of the New Academic Year!
After a good night’s sleep I am ready to fill you in on the first Cookie Café day. We hung our new flag for the first time. It is beautiful and tells the students it’s time for Cookie Café.
The students started streaming in at 12:30 right after lunch. The plebes looked a little confused but it didn’t take them long to see that they could relax, eat all the cookies they wanted, visit with their friends and make new friends (even upperclassmen). At the end of the day we had 521 students who had smiles on their faces and remembrance of home and Mom’s baking.
One student told me that his morale all week had been on the floor but had just risen to above his head. The number of smiles was amazing, and so many of them wanted or needed a MOM hug.
We had some new parents helping out, the Felds and the Kummer mother and daughter team. All the parents helping except Johanna (husband Hal graduated in 1954) and myself, currently have students going to Kings Point. They absolutely love it and say that they had no idea how wonderful it is to be there and see the faces.
A new coach showed up because he told me he had been hearing about Cookie Café for two weeks. He took a plate of cookies, found some of his students and sat down to visit. I watched his smile get bigger and bigger. When he came up to get his second plate of cookies, he looked at me and said “Now I know why the students love Cookie Café!”
We had gone through 229 dozen homemade cookies and had part of one pan left over which I put in the freezer. Just then a plebe rushes in all out of breath and said, he had "Just gotten out of class, were there any cookies left?” I was happy to pull out our last pan and pour a glass of milk for him. They were molasses cookies and he loved dipping them into his cold milk. Later we had another plebe come in absolutely soaked with perspiration, he had been running very hard. “Are there any cookies left?" he asked very anxiously. Thankfully we had a few left and several glasses of milk. He was very happy. So, at the end of the day we had a total of 6 cookies left!!! I have never had a Cookie Café where there were no cookies left for a Midshipman, so I am very thankful that I didn’t break my record this time. The students are so grateful.
Cookie Café does not start on Thursday. If there are enough cookies coming in and I don’t have to do marathon baking that week, Cookie Café starts on Wednesday when we gather all the supplies, buy the milk, eggs, butter, half and half, and extra supplies needed and put them in three large coolers with lots of ice. Thursday starts about 4:45am as we roll out of bed to start our day. There is the 42-mile drive, carrying everything in to Land Hall, and starting to fix the place up for Cookie Café to begin. We probably have a 5-minute break until about 6pm that night. The next day I have to wash and fold all the tablecloths, clean everything and put it away for the next Wednesday when we start all over again. Those are the easy weeks when I don’t have to start my two beaters going to make sure no student goes without cookies that week.
All week the cookies from you parents and relatives are coming in by mail, UPS, FedEx. There are always boxes that end up on our front porch. They instantly are put into the freezer until the next time we go to KP. We carry them down and put them in the Land Hall (Cookie Café) freezer, and so another week goes by.
Now back to Cookie Café. This is a project that we couldn’t, and I don’t think should have done ourselves. This a nationwide parents’ project of showing love to the Midshipmen. Schools, including some of the federal academies, are trying to figure out how we all did it. Kings Point has something that many schools are taking notice of. Pat yourselves on the back. You are great!!! Thanks so much for making this happen.
-Carol Guest