Baking To Build

Story By Kendyl Hollingsworth Photos Contributed By Auburn Opelika Habitat For Humanity

What do you get when you sell 30,000 cookies to a hungry community? More houses for those in need. For nearly 30 years, the Auburn WeHelp Coalition has been partnering with Auburn Opelika Habitat for Humanity to kick off the holiday season with a “Cookie Walk” — a huge bake sale supporting the local Habitat’s mission to help lowincome families work toward home ownership and “pay it forward” to help others in need.

This year’s Cookie Walk will be held Saturday, Dec. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon — just in time to get a jumpstart on satisfying the annual craving for Christmas cookies, or setting aside a few for Santa. It will be held at Grace United Methodist Church, near Glenn Avenue and Dean Road in Auburn.

With rows upon rows of homemade cookies available — from chocolate chip to snickerdoodles and everything in between — attendees will be able to pick and choose. All cookies will be $6 per pound.

The local WeHelp is a group of 12 local churches that work together to give back to the community, though plenty of others pitch in to make the event possible, said Mark Grantham, executive director of the Auburn Opelika Habitat for Humanity.

Members of the coalition include Auburn AME Zion, Auburn First Baptist Church, Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church of Auburn, Grace United Methodist Church, Green Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Trinity Lutheran Church, True Deliverance Holiness Church and White Street Baptist Church.

“This is a fun way for a wide variety of churches to come

together with a common goal of providing homes for deserving families,” said Martha Henk, co-chair for the Cookie Walk. “There often aren’t that many opportunities for people from small churches and big churches, from predominately white church members or black church members, from all walks of life to work together. It is a great way to start the Christmas season in a way that helps others.”

Six churches first organized WeHelp in the 1980s, according to Event Chair Lisa Kriese-Anderson, with a goal to raise enough money for the churches to build a new Habitat for Humanity house every other year.

“Over the years, WeHelp has raised enough money to build 15 of the 73 houses through Auburn Opelika Habitat for Humanity,” she said.

Most of the fundraising efforts came from the Cookie Walk and blueberry sales, but as costs increased over the years, it became much harder for WeHelp to raise all the necessary funds to build a house. Today, however, the Cookie Walk remains a successful staple of a fundraiser.

According to Kriese-Anderson, planning for the Cookie Walk officially begins each year in August. The committee meets monthly, but Henk said planning ramps up as the event draws nearer. Committee members are responsible for finding volunteers, spreading the word about the event and, most importantly, recruiting bakers to provide the cookies — often from within their congregations.

“We need approximately 30,000 cookies,” Kriese-Anderson said. “When you break that down per church, that is about 250 dozen cookies each. … If you think about an average cookie recipe — they make five dozen cookies, so each church needs to recruit about 50 bakers to bake one batch of cookies.”

This year, however, there will be a big change: Bakers will be allowed to contribute more than just cookies. Treats like brownies, bar cookies or even Christmas candies will be up for grabs. Any cookies that get broken during setup go to the “hospitality table,” where Grantham said they will be free for attendees to try. Free coffee will be available, too.

This will be the first totally in-person Cookie Walk since 2019. Although COVID hit the following year, even a global pandemic couldn’t stop the community’s efforts to give back.

“We did continue through COVID,” Grantham said. “One year we sort of had just a drive-thru Cookie Walk at the church where cars drove around the circle, made a donation and we gave them a cookie, rather than them buying cookies. We had some custommade Habitat cookies that year, and I think we raised about $10,000 or $12,000 that particular year.”

Grantham said he counts it a blessing to have such a supportive community backing the local Habitat for Humanity, and it’s amazing to see the support come from such a wide range

of groups and individuals.

In addition, Henk said the event has become a great way to get into the giving spirit and strengthen the community.

“It is a great opportunity to use simple things like cookies in a way that is actually helping to make a home possible — so we really are feeding our souls while we feed our bodies,” she said. “We’ve all come through a challenging couple of years, and we know that many of our neighbors continue to experience hard times. It’s important to find those ways to experience joy but to also do something to help someone else.”

While the vast majority of cookies are homemade, Grantham said the event is also hoping to incorporate many more commercially-made cookies. With places like Crumbl Cookies and Insomnia Cookies already on board, he said participants can expext hundreds — or even thousands, of delicious cookies from commercial partners up for grabs.

“There are some places that are not necessarily cookie stores that have fantastic cookies out here, so we’ll have a large selection of the delicious Christmas cookies — or commerciallymade cookies — from the restaurants, bakeries and vendors all over our community,” he explained.

According to both Kriese-Anderson and Henk, there’s a certain excitement that comes from seeing everything come together and watching families pick out their favorite treats.

“The day before can be really hectic as we work to prepare the trays of cookies for Saturday morning,” Henk explained. “The coolest part is when families start to come in and you see the little kids filling their boxes with goodies, and you see people so excited about seeing their favorite cookie just ready to be selected. People who have come over the years often look for particular cookies that they’ve found before — and that’s fun. Just like people, cookies come in all shapes and sizes.”

A couple of quilts — including an intricate queen-sized one — will also be on display at the Cookie Walk and up for grabs to the winning ticketholders. The Cotton Boll Quilt Guild has been donating handmade quilts to the Cookie Walk for years, and tickets will be sold at the event with proceeds also benefiting the Auburn Opelika Habitat for Humanity.

“Some of the kids’ choirs from different churches will do different songs, too,” Grantham added. “We’ll have some of that local entertainment there [to provide] music.”

Santa Claus will also return to hear Christmas wishes and take photos with attendees. According to Kriese-Anderson, parents and grandparents will also be allowed to take pictures of their children or grandchildren with Santa.

Grantham said he encourages everyone to come early to the event to get the best selection of cookies.

“So much love is put into the baking of each batch of cookies,” Kriese-Anderson said. “I hope the people who attend this year’s Cookie Walk can feel that love and experience the joy of the Christmas season.”

Have your own famous Christmas goodies you’d like to share? Donate them to the cause by delivering them to Grace United Methodist Church anytime from 2 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 2.

“We really invite and open the participation to everybody, not just the churches,” Grantham said. “Anyone in the community that has their favorite cookie, and it doesn’t have to be a holiday cookie … to bake those, bring those, donate those and we will sell them in the Cookie Walk sale, and that money helps us build more Habitat for Humanity homes in Auburn.”

For more information about the Cookie Walk, or to donate online to the Auburn Opelika Habitat for Humanity, visit www. auburnopelikahabitat.org/annual-cookie-walk/.