Big Scoop spearheads drive to provide 3,000 cookies years ago
By ROWENA PLETT
Reporter / photographer
As is her custom, Luci Helmer, manager of The Big Scoop in Marion, was listening last Wednesday morning to Cornbread, the comic DJ on KFDI, 101.3 FM, Wichita. He was talking about care packages that were being prepared for Kansas servicemen stationed overseas.
"What they really miss the most is homemade cookies," a caller said.
"I could do that," Helmer thought.
She and daughter Tracy Waner contacted him and told him the community would provide 2,000 homemade cookies for the care packages.
It turned out to be a bigger project than she had imagined.
She put up a sign in the business Thursday asking for donations of supplies, time, or money, and she also contacted Marion Chamber of Commerce.
Bob Hartley, owner of Highway 56 Car Wash, brought "$1 off" coupons to The Big Scoop for those who donated one dollar toward supplies. Others made cash donations and offered to bake cookies.
The cookies needed to be ready by Monday evening and, because of the short notice, Helmer ended up producing most of the cookies herself along with a group of volunteers.
As of Sunday, she, Tracy, Shawn Geis, and about 11 other women had baked about 200 dozen in ovens at the Marion Christian Church kitchen. Another 50 dozen cookies had been brought in.
A reporter from the Hutchinson News came Saturday to take pictures and do a story.
The original goal was 2,000 cookies, one for every resident in Marion. That goal was reached at 5:50 p.m. Saturday, so the bakers quit for a while.
"We still had two triple batches of cookie dough," Helmer noted, so she upped the goal to 250 dozen.
She, Tracy, and Shawn went back Sunday afternoon and baked some more. Shawn's daughter Kristen helped with counting out and wrapping.
"We only burned four," Shawn said, although she noted that Tracy forgot to add sugar to one batch.
"I forgot some of the shortening, too, but they tasted pretty good, and were low-fat!" she said.
The cookies were packed four dozen to a box, with popcorn used as filler. They included snickerdoodles, oatmeal, chocolate chip, and sugar cookies, and Rice Krispies bars.
Business cards from The Big Scoop were included with each box.
Cornbread kept people informed on the radio as to what was happening here in Marion.
Final wrapping and boxing occurred Monday evening, and the cookies were loaded into a van.
"It was packed," Shawn said.
Early Tuesday morning, Luci, Shawn, and Kristen set out for Wichita to take the cookies to the radio station. When they got there, Cornbread interviewed them on the air.
He acted excited to meet them and called them "the cookie ladies." He talked with them about what they had done, giving The Big Scoop and Marion some free publicity.
They then presented him with a Big Scoop coffee mug, a Marion T-shirt, and several other things.
Along with thousands of other items donated by schools, businesses, and numerous individuals, the cookies were turned over to the military for distribution.
