Wayyyy back in the day (last year), I did a treat swap (Treats For Troops!) to send baked goods to organizations all over town, troops overseas, and throughout our school community. Apparently, I’m famous (aka they wrote an article about me/it in the school newsletter)! :O
Treats For Troops
“Just in time for Veterans’ Day, WVSOM staff and students baked assorted treats to send to troops overseas.
Former U.S. Army Sgt. E-5, Charity Richmond, works in WVSOM’s Office of the General Counsel. She has friends in C Company 1-1 Task Force Gunfighters stationed in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, and knew how homesick they were feeling as the holidays approached. She remembered that feeling from her own time in the service.
“When you’re far from home, the care packages you receive are so appreciated,” she said. “It’s important to know that people back home miss you. Of course, those tastes and smells can also make you even more homesick for loved ones.”
The “Treats for Troops” boxes were placed around campus and a communication distributed asked for donations to send overseas–particularly home-baked comfort foods that couldn’t be obtained in the remote outposts.
Enter second-year student Farrah Fong. She’d seen the “Treats for Troops” boxes and felt inspired to fill them. She developed the idea for a treat swap based on an online site she’d visited called the “Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.”
“I love food and spend my spare time looking through food blogs and gathering recipes for future kitchen experiments,” Fong said. “In order to participate in the cookie swap, each blogger would make a small donation to ‘Cookies for Kids’ Cancer,’ which raises funds for pediatric cancer research. Then the participants would bake cookies for three other participants and receive one dozen cookies from three different bloggers.”
Fong adapted the concept for WVSOM, requesting that participants bake homemade treats in batches of three dozen. Participants would receive some of the treats, as would the service members in C Company 1-1, the Children’s Home Society and the Family Refuge Center.
“The holidays are a time for giving and we wanted to give a little something to everyone,” she said.
Belinda Evans, student program advisor in the Office of Student Affairs, said when Fong first approached her with the idea, her excitement was infectious.
“When she told me that some of the treats were going to our troops, it humbled me. I have a nephew and son-in-law who benefit from organizations such as ours so I know firsthand how much it means to them to receive something homemade. They appreciate all packages that are sent to them but the ‘homemade’ items give them a sense of home, that warm and fuzzy feeling. I think we tend to forget how much “home” is missed by our servicemen and women.” Evans said.
The cost to participate in the treat extravaganza was $2. Fong collected more than 1,000 treats for distribution and the funds she raised were donated to local no-kill animal shelters.”
- Have you ever put on a fundraiser?
- What would you bake for a treat swap? :]
