Cooks Who Care•special cookie deliveries lift a community’s spirit.

“Cookies for Caregivers” delivers love and fresh-baked treats to hometown heroes.

JEREMY UHRICH AND SCOTT MCKENZIE DIDN’T REALIZE HOW POWERFUL A DOZEN

COOKIES COULD BE. That is, until they began to personally deliver their home-baked goodies to essential workers in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The mission started with a little wager between the two friends.

Scott and Jeremy deliver dozens of cookies to front-line workers each week.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown began, Jeremy, a basketball coach, teacher and camp director, decided to bake cookies with his sons, Finley and Maddix.

Scott, a former soccer coach, had been furloughed from his position as associate athletic director at Juniata College. To make the most of his time at home, he aimed to try to do something new every day.

First up? Making chocolate chip cookies from scratch.

When a photo of Scott’s baking adventure hit Facebook, Jeremy’s competitive spirit kicked in. “I said, ‘I bet my cookies are better than yours,’” Jeremy recalls. With the challenge on the table, it was “game on” for the coaches.

Jeremy and Scott asked high school basketball player Rachel Kyle to join them, and recruited Huntingdon Mayor David Wessels to judge the baking contest. The mayor livestreamed the judging on Facebook, with Rachel taking top honors. After the contest, Rachel, Scott and Jeremy took their remaining cookies to the Huntingdon

Police Department as a tasty thank-you for first responders. “Then a light bulb went off,” says Scott, “and we realized we could do this every week.”

So Scott created a “Cookies for Caregivers” Facebook page to invite the community to help bake thank-you cookies for those on the front lines of the pandemic. By the end of the first day, more than 100 people had joined the group.

It wasn’t long before they had enough volunteers to make cookie deliveries for several months. The bakers drop off their cookies, along with a recipe, to Jeremy, who sorts and delivers them. The local hospital gets Cookies for Caregivers every week. Other recipients include firefighters, postal workers, veterinarians, doctors’ offices and pharmacists.

Since that first batch, Jeremy and Scott and their team of 200-plus bakers have presented more than 1,000 dozen cookies and treats to hometown heroes.

“A few people have been moved to tears,” Scott says. “These people had felt invisible and when you shine a light of gratitude on someone and they feel valued, sometimes you get that reaction.

“That’s what this entire thing is about, bringing a little happiness in a time of despair,” he adds, “and if a cookie or treat can do that, we’ll continue to have people bake and we’ll be the delivery boys.”