Random acts of kindness — and cookies for troops — at Lady Lake post office
Let me tell you a story about the power of a home-baked cookie.
It was a beautiful morning in Lady Lake recently — just another day in paradise, as transplants often say
— when two women walked into the local post office with precisely 8,064 cookies and a few volunteers in tow.
The weeks they and others had spent collecting home-baked cookies from their Harbor Hills Country Club and The Villages neighbors had come to this: The two organizers would spend several hours helping postal workers check in and prepare 84 boxes for the trip overseas. Within days, U.S. troops in Kosovo, Poland, South Korea and the Middle East could savor paradise — a taste of home — for the holidays.
The post office was buzzing that morning, with a long line of customers waiting their turns at the counter. I was one of them. Fortunately for us, workers were processing all those cookies at an isolated counter. I had contributed cookies to that cause, the nonprofit Treat the Troops (treatthetroops.org), but I also had made up a box that I would send to a particular sergeant stationed in Indiana.
So as I waited, I watched. I watched as the postmaster stepped up to the cookie counter, plunked down $100 and announced, “This is your first 100.” She wanted to help pay the shipping cost of just under $1,800, which included a military discount. This opened the floodgates, in more ways than one. Postal workers you never see left their stations behind the scenes and followed their leader, shelling out money for shipping and sharing stories about their military connections.
Customers gave up their coveted spots in the long line and joined the procession to donate money. For a frozen moment in time, people forgot about the coronavirus, and the word “stranger” lost its meaning. People bonded. They hugged the volunteers and thanked them for thinking of our Troops. They wanted to do their part.
Tears flowed … for the generosity of “strangers,” for the troops, for the love of America.
“This is what America is all about,” I heard someone say.
When several hundred dollars had been collected, a tall, longbearded gentleman who might have passed for a young Santa Claus pulled out his credit card and covered the rest of the costs. Turns out, this contract worker for the postal service comes from a family of veterans, and his son had just returned from active duty in Africa.
The women had brought donations to pay the shipping costs, but the generosity continued. More tears, all around.
All told during this year, Harbor Hills and The Villages volunteers baked nearly 13,000 cookies for overseas troops, along with sending them handwritten cards. A friend’s story about what a comfort homemade cookies would be for her son and others stationed at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates inspired me to bake.
It all boils down to this. To families who have loved ones serving: No one can understand
what your life is like, but what happened at the post office that beautiful morning shows that others share your worry and your pride.
To U.S. troops everywhere: We love you and appreciate you and you are foremost in our thoughts this holiday season and beyond. Stay safe and come home. The
cookies will carry that message.