By John Brasier Record Staff Writer Though she had hot, fresh-baked cookies waiting as incentives for volunteers, Judy Ducar wasn’t sure she would have enough help to pack more than 5,000 cookies …
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‘Cookie Brigade’ ships treats to soldiers
Posted
By John BrasierRecord Staff WriterThough she had hot, fresh-baked cookies waiting as incentives for volunteers, Judy Ducar wasn’t sure she would have enough help to pack more than 5,000 cookies for shipment to overseas troops.“I was so nervous,” said Ducar, one of the primary organizers of Patriot Packages, the Wright City-based non-profit that sends monthly care packages to U.S. troops serving abroad.“I didn’t know whether we’d have one person or 50 show up.“This is the first time we’ve done something of this magnitude.”Ducar, who lives in O’Fallon, didn’t need to worry. A “Cookie Brigade” of at least two dozen volunteers turned out at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 14 at the Warren County Extension Center in Warrenton.By early afternoon, 430 dozen cookies had been vacuum sealed (a dozen per bag), packaged with bubble wrap in 55 boxes (eight bags per box), for delivery to troops serving around the world. The boxes were taken to the post office the next day.“It’s gone very, very well,” said Jim Bubash, a volunteer from St. Louis County.Dad’s Cookie Co. of south St. Louis donated the oatmeal cookies for the troops. Ducar and Bob Braendle picked up the cookies three days earlier. Braendle, who solicited Dad’s for the donation and handles the bulk of the work in locating recipients, was in Florida during the packaging.Longtime Patriot Packages volunteer Jean Jarchow, of Innsbrook, took cookies from large Dad’s boxes and sealed them into plastic bags.“It’s something we can do for the soldiers who do so much for us,” said Jarchow.Patriot Packages sent a much smaller number of tins of homemade cookies to soldiers in December in 2012 and 2013. Ducar said the government now asks groups to send professionally prepared products. When Braendle contacted Dad’s, the cookiemaker said it couldn’t supply the cookies until January.Though the volunteers stayed busy preparing boxes, they had time to enjoy an occasional cookie baked on-site for them by Hedy Sutton and Darlene Pope of Smith Creek United Methodist Church. Sutton said volunteers ate more than three dozen cookies. Another three or four dozen were left over.Patriot Packages volunteers normally meet on a Friday once a month at the National Guard Armory in Warrenton to put together packages of assorted items to send to overseas troops. They’ll meet next on March 20.Ducar said Patriot Packages sometimes gets responses from recipients within two weeks of the date packages are mailed.Braendle acquires lists of overseas units from Missouri and Illinois bases to receive monthly packages. The group also mails packages to individual soldiers — free of charge — by request.With each individual receiving eight dozen cookies, Bubash said the cookies are shared throughout units.If individual recipients cannot be found, the packages are given to chaplains for distribution.Mel Heins, a Korean War veteran and a longtime Patriot Packages volunteer, said the gratitude of the soldiers can be overwhelming.Heins has several photos from soldiers who received packages.“That’s what brings you back,” he said. “They’re really thankful for what you do. Some soldiers don’t get anything from home. This is really important to them.”
Joanne Goldstein, left, and Jean Jarchow package cookies in plastic wrapping during the “Cookie Brigade.” The packages were vaduum-sealed and boxed to be shipped overseas. Madeleine Sutherland photo.
