M.E. LaZerte High School students whip up 3,000 cookies for women in need
Students were elbow-deep in flour, sugar and butter at M.E. LaZerte High School Saturday, baking 3,000 cookies for women in need.
Now in its third year at the school, the Bake-A-Batch bakeathon has students, staff and volunteers mixing up tasty treats for women and children at Edmonton's Providence Women's Shelter.
Tracy Wilson started baking cookies and squares for the shelter in her own kitchen 26 years ago, when she heard they didn't have any Christmas baking during the holiday season. She says the response from the women who receive the baking has been "overwhelming."
"The amount of pleasure I found out the women and children got from that, and the normalcy it gave these people at a time that was just so incredibly upheaved in their lives ... I just thought how could I not?" she said.
"It just gradually grew and grew and grew. I'm very proud to say that I'm just a little, wee cog in a wheel that has grown very big."
Alongside the cookies, around 40 volunteers helped assemble hampers filled with gift cards and toiletries for the shelter.
M.E. LaZerte culinary arts teacher Andrew Hess oversaw the baking of 250 dozen cookies this year.
"It's an enormous undertaking," he said. "I really love how it gets students involved."
Naomi Fiogbe, a Grade 11 student at the high school, says she volunteers often and was proud to be part of this year's team of bakers.
"These small things actually make people really happy," she said.
"It's really nice when you give a little bit of something to your community. Something homemade and baked is really a good thing."
