Cookie Walk 2014 was
 our very best sale ever

Saint Stephen’s Annual Cookie Walk is no longer solely a neighbourhood affair. Over the past 25 years, it has evolved into a community institution. Our customers are drawn not merely from Timonium and Cockeysville, but from all over Baltimore.

It has become so popular, in fact, that phone calls from people enquiring about the event—which always takes place on the first Saturday in December—begin early and continue in a constant stream right up to the great day itself.

‘Will you be holding a Cookie Walk this year?’ they ask. ‘Or must I plan to bake my own cookies? Will you be selling those greens and centrepieces? What about your wreaths? They sold out last year. Will you be selling that wonderful peanut brittle?’

This year was our 25th Annual Cookie Walk and it was a tremendous success. In fact, thanks to your wonderful cookies, it was the best Cookie Walk ever. You can see pictures of the Cookie Walk in the Towson Times.

The parish owes all this to extraordinary teamwork on the part of the Parish Life Committee crew, headed by the redoubtable Dick and Priscilla Huffman and our brilliant Cookie Walk coordinator Colby Hawks.

But, actually, it would be most unfair to single out particular individuals for praise when so many were involved and when everybody worked so hard. The real heroes of this success story are you, the parishioners.

It is your talents, your crafts, and above all your glorious, utterly scrumptious cookies that have transformed the Saint Stephen’s Cookie Walk from a humble church fundraiser to a Baltimore institution.

Putting on such an event is an immensely stressful business, but the good humour, kindness, and tolerance for which Saint Stephen’s is noted ensured things ran as smoothly as possible.

We know that it’s tough to summon up the enthusiasm to begin your Christmas baking ahead of time—especially when the temperature is in the balmy 50 degrees Fahrenheit—but every year you’ve come through and created a selection of fabulous cookies that have become a neighbourhood byword.

This year our friends—new and old—turned out in droves. The first customer drove into the carpark at just after 8:00 AM—an hour before the scheduled start—and by 8:45 AM there were so many customers in line that there was no alternative but to open the doors and let them in.

For the next four and a half hours, Reta Richardson and her cookie sales crew were kept constantly busy, serving a seemingly never-ending queue of cookie lovers.

Fortunately, we had quantities of jam, jelly, peanut brittle, brandied pears, slow roasted pecans, and Christmas greens, table arrangements, and wreaths to sell.

But, as always, the success of the sale—and the lion’s share of our profits—hangs on the wonderful cookies you supply. This year you absolutely excelled yourselves. You baked more than 1,000 pounds of them!

Amazing though it might seem, by the end of the sale, all that was left, aside from crumbs, were a few bags of cookies, a couple of dozen pots of jam and jelly, a few Christmas puddings, and some odds and ends from the gift table and the children’s table.

According to Parish Life Treasurer Cindie Baker, the initial sales total at the day’s end was almost $10,000, with several hundred dollars still to come. That’s no small potatoes.

Cookie Walk, unlike other church bazaars, is all home–made. We don’t use vendors, but rest our reputation of each of you. You have never let us down. The cookies this year were very spectacular. You, our cookie cooks, are the folks who give the Christmas spirit an especially delicious flavour. COH