KEARNEYSVILLE — One Hospice of the Panhandle volunteer walked into the Education Center room on Tuesday morning and laughed.
“It doesn’t smell the same,” Pam Ouimette joked. “There’s no buckets of broken cookies.”
Volunteers gathered in the room Tuesday to pack boxes for Hospice’s No Cookie Project, a COVID-19-adjusted event in line with the annual treat boxes given to the providers, supporters and other friends of the organization around Valentine’s Day as sweet thank-yous.
In normal years, loads of homemade gifts would flood Hospice of the Panhandle as volunteers packed the goodies into boxes. After taking 2021 off, the No Cookie event brought back the boxes but with a twist: items were now pre-packaged.
Hospice of the Panhandle Development Director Maria Lorensen said in past years, local churches, community groups and volunteers donated hundreds of thousands of cookies. This year’s adjustment was a way to keep everyone safe while still providing that much-deserved thank-you.
“It’s just a nice way to say ‘Thank you,’’’ Lorensen said. “One of the things that Hospice of the Panhandle is good at is saying ‘Thank you.’ However, I don’t think you can ever really do that too much, because there are so many ways people help us. These folks, these volunteers might be sitting with a patient in their final hours. They’re also boxing cookies. We have one who just signed up to play the organ next door. In so many different ways, people just want to help in whatever way they can. That’s the other beauty of Hospice is we find ways people can do this kind of work, whether it’s loading up boxes of treats or helping patients in their final moments.”
As she and Volunteer Services Manager Katrina Stevens looked out at the hardworking group, diligently filing each box to the brim, they commented on the variety of the goodies the adjustment allowed for: fruit cups, popcorn, chips, hot chocolate and snack cakes. In a way, the adjustment worked its way into the hearts of those involved, as they found nostalgia and fond memories in the treats.
“In years past, you could smell the cookies, because they were homemade and amazing. Just coming in and seeing what people donated…,” Lorensen said. “I was telling somebody on the phone, ‘There were snowballs from when I was young, those little Hostess snacks, things I hadn’t seen in years.’
“It’s a real variety.”
Even with the adjustment, the donations came flooding in, as groups provided those beloved treats. Di Fluri’s Fine Chocolates provided chocolate bars, while Tomahawk Christian Church provided a truckload of items.
Each donation came with a story, Stevens’ smile obvious even from behind her mask as she thought to St. James Catholic Church, which provided roughly 2,000 individual items.
“They donated in memory of a loved one who was a former volunteer of ours who was not able to be active for so many years,” Stevens said. “They donated in her memory, her daughter and the church did. That was really nice to have that way of her still being connected, because she was still doing that part for the church and acted as a liaison and collected stuff for them for years.
“I think it says the community still wants to do this, they still want to be involved. We weren’t sure how much we would get … over the top. It’s incredible. These boxes are stuffed full.”
Lorensen said the excitement and enthusiasm for the event has held strong through her 14 years with the organization and through the 35 years the project has been in existence.
“It’s been a hard two years for everybody, so many losses, whether it’s COVID or any kind of loss that people have experienced,” she said. “I think people want to give. They want to get back into it. By doing this, we’re able to find another way to make that happen.”
Tuesday’s boxes were anticipated at locations throughout Jefferson and Berkeley counties, while the same project will be held later this week on a smaller scale in Morgan and Hampshire counties.
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