Serving More Than Cookies Story and Photos By Megan Mann and Contributed By Toni Cartlidge
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oni Cartlidge was a military child. She was born and raised in New York. Her father was in the National Guard and the “military lifestyle” is all she has ever known. Cartlidge began working at the military academy at West Point in 1986. “I stayed in the same building all 30 years [until retirement in 2016] but just kept climbing the ladder,” Cartlidge said. “I did banquets for veterans, worked with the mess hall, became a budget analyst there. Pretty much anything they needed me to do, I did.” The New York native made her move across the country to Opelika, Alabama, about five years ago. “My husband was born and raised in Auburn,” she said. “We met at the military academy in New York where he worked too. We never thought much of each other but one day we finally
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talked, and the rest is history.” Her husband, Tommy, is also a veteran. They were both ready to retire from the military academy and wanted a change, Cartlidge said. That’s when they made their move from New York. After working for 30 years straight, Cartlidge was not comfortable with sitting around and doing nothing after her retirement. “After I retired, I needed to still find things to do for myself and the community, I like to stay busy,” she said. She decided to combine her passion for community service and giving back into a new business idea — baking cookies for veterans. “One day I called up a nursing home that housed veterans in Alexander City and just asked if I could bring them cookies,” she said. “I ended up baking about 2,000 the first time and me,
HONOR
