Wedding cookie table group sending 800 dozen to Uvalde
The Wedding Cookie Table community is turning out to support survivors of the recent shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde by doing what they do best: baking cookies and lots of them. The close-knit Facebook group, which boasts a worldwide membership over 100,000 strong, plans to send 800 dozen cookies via mail to the small town in Texas.
Laura Magone, the online community’s founder and beloved matriarch, said she had “no words to express” the horror she felt when she first heard about the May 24 shooting, in which 21 victims — most of them children — died at the hands of an 18-year-old shooter.
“I started thinking, who could use a show of kindness and support more than these folks in Uvalde?” said Ms. Magone.
She came up with the idea for the initiative a little over a week ago and posted an announcement in the online forum, in which she asked interested members to each ship five dozen favorite cookies, with a goal of 800 dozen total. Almost immediately, the comments section filled up, with bakers offering everything from Linzer hearts to butter balls.
Though the group has baked for charitable purposes before — most notably, making more than 2,000 cookies for community members after the 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Squirrel Hill — this will be its first national project.
“The world needs something uplifting right now, and my group loves to lift people up,” she said.
Ms. Magone started the Wedding Cookie Table Community in 2015 as a way to document and share a beloved Pennsylvanian tradition: having tables heaped high with cookies at wedding receptions. The baking tradition dates back to the Great Depression, when families turned to cookies as celebratory desserts instead of more pricey wedding cakes.
Now, though, cookie tables are not confined to weddings but can be present at any “life event,” from christenings to even funerals — “cradle to grave,” Ms. Magone said. This initiative falls into the latter category.
Karen Williamson, a member of the group who lives in Forest Hill, Md., is planning to ship five dozen sugar cutout cookies handdecorated by her daughter with uplifting messages. Hearing the news about the shooting reminded her of her horror at the 1999 high school shooting in Columbine, Colo., which occurred when her son was growing up.
“It was horrible then and horrible now,” she said. “You sit here, and you just feel so sad, and your heart is so heavy for everybody, and you just say, ‘What can we do?’”
In the face of this paralyzing grief, Ms. Williamson said the opportunity to show some measure of support in the form of cookies is “such an honor.”
“You can’t change it. You can’t take it away. So you just hope that, for a second or two, you’ve lightened it a smidge,” she said.
Nell Coleman, a group member who used to live in Indiana, Pa., but now resides in South Carolina, said she was “absolutely horrified” when she read about the shooting. Her daughter is a nurse and recently took care of victims of a mass shooting near her house.
“It’s close to my heart,” said Ms. Coleman, tearing up.
She plans to bake a big batch of her signature snickerdoodles to show her support. She has also sent the post to nonbaker friends outside the Facebook group, some of whom have committed to sending cookies as well. “This is actually a joy and a privilege to participate in this kind of a process,” Ms. Coleman said.
To organize the donation, Ms. Magone said she is working with members of the Facebook group who live in Texas. Though they reside closer to San Antonio, they have been driving to Uvalde to give her the “lay of the land.”
The current plan is to set up two large cookie tables: one on June 26, in the banquet hall of Sacred Heart church, where funerals are being held, and the other the next day, at Uvalde Memorial Hospital. Volunteers will also distribute pans of cookies to other local organizations, including the newspaper, city hall and first responders.
Any extras will be donated to food pantries and homeless shelters, Ms. Magone said.
Because the cookies will be shipped across the country and because Texas is “hot as blazes,” Ms. Magone urged prospective bakers only to bake cookies that do not require refrigeration. She also said that bakers should hold off on shipping their cookies as long as possible, so they are as fresh as possible when they arrive. Anyone interested in baking should visit the group’s Facebook page for logistical information and advice on shipping.
Ms. Magone has also partnered with Cookies and Candy by Christy, a local bakery run by Christy Fullwood, to provide a donation option for the less culinarily inclined. Group members can choose from a range of classic Pennsylvanian cookies — lady locks, Italian peaches, gobs, buckeyes and peanut butter blossoms — and the bakery will ship them to Uvalde on their behalf. Those interested should place their orders by Friday, so the bakery has time to buy the ingredients.
The group is on track to reach its 9,600-cookie goal, said Ms. Magone, and she won’t be surprised if they exceed it. She herself plans to send 10 dozen Italian biscotti. She also asked members to help purchase stuffed animals to donate to grieving children. They were sold out in a matter of days.
“We don’t want this to be just cookies. We want people to understand what these cookies represent,” said Ms. Magone. She hopes the people in Uvalde will feel the generosity and kindness that she said characterizes the Wedding Cookie Table community.
“It’s unimaginable that this happened and continues to happen,” she said. “What I hope will happen is that for maybe one minute, somebody who is grieving will have a happy moment, a moment of comfort, knowing that somebody that they don’t know — that they will never probably meet — cares about them and is trying to relate to their pain, their unimaginable pain.”